Day by Day
by Homura Made Me Do This
Summary: Time heals, they said. All you have to do is wait. AU. Rated T for Kyoko's mouth and several other things.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **I suppose I've been having this idea in my head. I'm just uploading it for fun, though. It'll be a multi-chapter and I don't know how many chapters I may need for this to be finished. It's an AU, obviously. I tried to make things as vague as possible in the beginning. No hints of romance yet, but it _will_ get cheesier as the chapters go on.

**Disclaimer:** As always, I don't own Puella Magi Madoka Magica because if I do I really would make Kyoko break Kyosuke's arms and legs at some point. And then Hitomi would go emo.

* * *

**Day by Day**

**Chapter 1: The Little Girl and Her New School**

It was probably an ordinary Monday morning for everyone else. Not for Akemi Homura, though. She was still on her bed, contemplating whether to get up or not. The girl was actually a morning person, even in times where everyone else would just complain about why Mondays had to exist. This time, she might as well join those people who complained. It wasn't like she was lazy, but she just didn't want to go to school. She just applied for Mitakihara Junior High several weeks ago because she had to stay in the hospital for months due to her heart condition. It would be so awkward. After all this time being separated from the world, she wondered if she could get things right again. She even had a hard time communicating with the nurse that took care of her at the hospital.

Homura sighed and buried her face in the pillow. Introducing herself in front of the class would suck majorly. Her sleepy eyes looked over to the alarm clock that never failed to get her up from the bed. She threw off the blanket that covered her body in a tangled mess, after cursing herself for not being able to stay still on her sleep.

"… If only I listened to them…" Homura muttered quietly. The nightmare she had last night was one of the worst. She shook her head as she stood up and walked over to the bathroom, preparing for school. This would be a really long day.

* * *

On her way to school, Homura saw a lot of students staring at her as they passed her. Some looked in wonder, some giggled, and some just had a plain dumb look on their face. She didn't look back at them, though. It was a waste of time. However, she got distracted by two girls arguing in front of her, making the crowd of students stop for a moment to watch. One was a redhead with a ponytail and the other one was a blue haired girl.

"I told you not to forget, for God's sake!" the blue haired girl yelled.

"What?! So it's my fault?! Well I can't possibly remember about something that's supposed to be your problem, you fucking moron! I don't have that much space in my motherfucking head!" the redhead yelled louder.

"Are you saying that I have a lot of problems?!"

"Why not?! Stop dragging your flat ass over to someone else's problem and maybe you can reduce the horrifying number of problems you have in your shitty head, you piece of crap!"

"Hey wha-ARE YOU SAYING THAT I HAVE A FLAT ASS?!"

Okay now it was getting ridiculous. Homura shook her head and continued walking to the school. She was expecting a good drama in the morning but what she got instead was something… vulgar. Disappointed Homu is disappointed.

As she took a turn to get to the school gate, she bumped into someone's back-a girl. The one Homura bumped into swayed dangerously, looking as if she was going to high five the ground with her face. Homura could maintain her balance, so she reached out for the other girl's hand, preventing her to fall. The girl squeaked as she was being pulled back to a standing position. She was noticeably smaller than Homura, so no wonder she almost fell after such a small bump.

Homura was about to apologize when the shorter girl turned around to face her. She had pink eyes that matched her hair, only a bit darker. An apologetic look was spread across her face, though her lips were curved up in a tiny smile. When she looked right into Homura's eyes, the latter wanted to just look away. She wasn't used to making eye contacts with anyone, not even with those who were kind to her. That was why she focused her eyes on something else whenever she talked to someone. This time she couldn't, however, for the sake of politeness.

"I'm sorry!" The girl said as she bowed, bumping her head to Homura's chest in the process since she wasn't aware of their distance. She raised her head up and quickly moved away, bowing again repeatedly with a panicked look on her face, "I-I'm sorry again!"

Homura forgot to do a research to count on how many weirdoes did the school had to offer. Then again, it was too late. She already saw an always-swearing redhead, a blue haired girl that seemed to keep the redhead company with their constant bickering, and now a clumsy, apologetic girl (with pink hair, no less) that seemed to be too nice for this cruel world. What next, a rainbow-haired girl that shits unicorns?

The pink-haired girl fidgeted in front of Homura, waiting for a response. She sighed, flipping her hair, "There's no need to apologize. It's fine."

"Oh! That's good, then," the girl said with a smile, "Umm… I've never seen you around before."

Homura looked over somewhere else, now that they were done with the apologizing business, "It's my first day here."

"I see! Hehe, my name is Kaname Madoka! Nice to meet you, umm…"

"Nice to meet you too," Homura muttered coldly as she walked past Madoka, leaving the girl alone.

She knew that Madoka was giving a signal that she wanted to know Homura's name, but… she didn't want to know anyone yet. Not when she was in the worst mood she ever had. Her eyes focused forwards to the huge school building in front of her. It had an impressive architecture for a school. No wonder it was quite famous. The moment her thoughts came back to the fact that Madoka was being kind to her while Homura was being an ass in return made her sigh in exasperation, _'I suck so hard in socializing'_.

"_You're the worst, Akemi."_

Homura flinched. She brushed off the thought and kept her focus on her new school… and wished things would just pass by quickly.

* * *

"Sooo, Akemi Homura, correct?" A brown-haired teacher asked, "Welcome to Mitakihara Junior High. I will be your homeroom teacher. My name is Saotome Kazuko."

Homura nodded, "Yes, thank you."

"Hmmhmm, well then, since the bell just rang, we should get to the classroom now. Follow my lead!" Kazuko pumped her fist in the air.

And she got stuck with an oddly spirited homeroom teacher. Right when she thought she had a hope on her homeroom but nope.

On their way to the classroom, Kazuko found it a bit hard to keep her mouth closed. She decided to ask Homura one question that had been bothering her, "So you have a heart disease… that must be difficult, right?"

"It's not so difficult," '_if you're used to it_.'

"I see… I heard your parents just passed away a year ago. My condolences. Are you living alone, then?" Kazuko asked again.

"Yes, I'm living alone," Homura answered shortly, dismissing the part where Kazuko mentioned her parents. She didn't want to hear, let alone remember it.

Kazuko sighed in defeat. This was probably the first time she couldn't keep up a conversation with a student. Luckily, the classroom was in front of their eyes already. Kazuko took a deep breath and walked quite close to the door before stopping abruptly. Homura had good reflexes, thank goodness, so she stopped just in time before she slammed herself onto her new homeroom teacher.

"Wait here, Akemi-san. I'll tell the class that we're going to have a new student first, and then you come in, got it?" Kazuko said, winking.

Homura stared coldly at Kazuko and nodded, "Understood."

The brunette chuckled awkwardly before continuing to get into the classroom. Homura made sure that no one could see her yet when the door opened, so she stepped back a bit. She took her time to observe the classrooms around. The walls were made of glasses. Fancy, that. She could hear Kazuko complaining inside the classroom regarding sunny-side up eggs and boys and stuff… so… even the teachers were equally odd, huh.

Then she heard Kazuko's signal for her to come in. She took a deep breath as she approached the door. When she got inside, the whole classroom went silent. What, did she just turn into a 'please be quiet' sign or something? For God's sake, every time people went quiet just because they saw her, she just got even more anxious than before. She tightened her grip on her schoolbag, trying to get rid of the anxiety. When she turned to face the whole class, she held back the urge to curse out loud.

There, in the class, sitting conveniently, were the three girls she saw earlier. Madoka and those girls that argued over something she didn't want to know were in the same class as her and Homura just wanted to strangle herself. She looked around again, trying to avert her gaze from everyone else. She decided to look over to Kazuko, who was writing down her name. Kazuko looked back at her and smiled, "Well, continue with the introduction, please?"

Homura glanced to the back of the class, still making sure not to make any eye contacts, but to no avail. She closed her eyes and said smoothly, "My name is Akemi Homura, nice to meet you all."

Her voice was colder than she expected. Everyone was still quiet the moment she opened her eyes. She could feel all the eyes looking right at her. This wasn't right. Should she say something? But there was nothing else! Were they that curious about her? Then Homura really hoped that no one would talk to her in this first day. At least not so soon.

Homura snapped out from her thoughts when she saw a hand waving at her. Madoka's hand.

'_Oh. My. God.'_

"Saotome-sensei! Can Akemi-san sit next to me? The seat's empty!" Madoka said cheerfully. She then locked her eyes to Homura, who seemed to be glaring at her. Madoka shrank in her seat and twiddled her fingers, "… Iiiiiifff she doesn't mind…"

Kazuko stared at the empty seat Madoka mentioned. When she returned her attention to Homura, the raven-haired girl was giving her a 'don't you dare' look. She simply shrugged, as if sending a mental message to Homura that there was no other choice. The woman chuckled and said to Madoka, "Oh, I suppose she'll be glad to sit there. There's no other empty seat anyway. So you'll be sitting next to Kaname-san. Don't worry. She's the health officer for this class so if you're feeling unwell you can just tell her."

There was nothing she could do but to accept the fact that she was going to sit with the awfully kind pinkette she met earlier. Homura sighed and kept her signature frown on her face as she walked towards the seat next to Madoka. She put her bag down and sat quietly, even though she could see from the corner of her eyes that Madoka was clearly smiling in satisfaction.

'_Just what in the world is she trying to do?'_

* * *

Homura spent the whole day listening to the lectures. Sometimes she would look over at Madoka when she heard her giggle with her blue haired friend. Her attention was torn between the lectures and the small girl to the point she didn't even realize that the classes have ended. Her gaze lingered on Madoka who was still talking with her friend as she packed up her bag. The pinkette finally took notice of Homura's attention on her. She smiled and greeted the zoning out girl, "Hi Akemi-san."

Homura didn't look at her, but she got back to reality in time, "… Hi."

"Hey Piglet, do you have any lunch left?" The redhead said as she walked over to Madoka.

"No, I don't, Kyoko-chan," Madoka answered politely, "Why don't you ask Sayaka-chan?"

"Whoa, wah?! After she called you Piglet, Madoka?! Really?! How can you be so calm after being insulted like that?" The blue haired girl, presumably Sayaka, said as she pointed her index finger to Kyoko.

"Oi, Piglet is cute. So shut the fuck up, moron," Kyoko snorted, "And what was your name again, kid?" She continued, turning to Homura.

'_Kid?'_

Before Homura could answer, Madoka cut her off immediately, pinching Kyoko's cheek, "Hey! I do appreciate you mentioning that I'm cute by calling me Piglet," she was clearly missing the point, "But you should at least pay attention when someone's introducing themselves! It's difficult to do that, you know?"

'_Like _you_ know how it feels.'_

"Yeah, you hear her, Kyo-tan," Sayaka barged in, much to Kyoko's displease.

"Ergh, sorry Piglet. And you better keep your mouth shut, Bluey," Kyoko said, slapping Madoka's hand away, "But really, I don't remember her name! It's just plain weird."

"She's Akemi Homura! And it's not weird. Keep it in mind, Kyoko-chan!" Madoka said with an adorable pout.

Well, even Homura found that cute. Was that how Madoka treated her after Homura was being such a jerk to her earlier? As much as she didn't want to make friends so soon, she was actually glad that Madoka wasn't offended by her attitude. Maybe a bit, but she definitely didn't look like the kind of person that would get offended by small things… if being a jerk could be considered a small thing, that is.

"Oooooh… Homerun," Kyoko said, "You're Homerun!"

'_What.'_

"Excuse me?" Homura asked, blinking in confusion.

"Homerun, you know, as in baseballs?" Kyoko explained, making a motion as if she was swinging a baseball bat.

"She's probably confused as to why you're calling her _that_, not what a homerun is, Kyo-tan," Sayaka facepalmed.

"IT'S A PUN!" Kyoko shouted, pointing at Sayaka.

"What the-Why are you shouting at me?! What am I to blame?!"

"IT'S A FREAKING PUN, DAMMIT!"

"I know it's a pun so why are you shouting at me?!"

"BECAUSE YOU HAVE A FLAT ASS!"

"WHAT DOES THAT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THIS?!"

Madoka panicked. Apparently, she didn't know which one to calm down first, Sayaka or Kyoko. Meanwhile, Homura just didn't care. She took her bag and walked up to the door. She just really didn't care about how they would call her or whatever, as long as they wouldn't pay so much attention on her. She was about to get out from the no longer peaceful classroom before a small hand tugged on her sleeve, stopping her movements.

"Akemi-san, help me to settle them down," Madoka said with a soft voice, "Please…?"

"I don't want to get involved," Homura muttered with a frown as her free hand swept Madoka's hand away, "I'm tired."

As she expected, Madoka was looking up to her with those wide eyes of hers. Those dark pink eyes were filled with hope. It kind of disturbed her to a certain point, actually. She returned that gaze with an equally disturbing glare. Madoka's eyebrows furrowed, showing that she wasn't going to let those violet orbs away from her sight. The more she stared into the pinkette's eyes, the more discomfort it caused Homura. It was frustrating, because those two fighting in the classroom kept on getting louder and louder each second.

"This is ridiculous," Homura said, flipping her hair as she turned around to walk off.

"… Are you still mad over what happened this morning? When I bumped into you?" Madoka asked timidly.

Homura clicked her tongue. Why couldn't she just let her go home? She really was tired, "I'm not. I just want to go home."

"But-"

"You're their friend, I'm a stranger to them," the taller girl cut off, quickly walking as far as she could from Madoka. No more things had to be explained. Madoka should understand that not everyone would return her kindness with the same thing. Some people might take it bitterly. Homura understood that she probably just wasted a chance to get a good friend. Well, she'd love to get a good friend. She'd love to get a really kind person like that to be close to her.

But she wouldn't make the same mistake.

She would tread carefully and see through even the kindest of people. She wouldn't jump into conclusions like an idiot she used to be. For now, Homura chose to distance herself from Madoka and those alike to her.

As she passed through the school gate, she saw a little black kitten staring curiously at her. Looking around, Homura bent down and petted the kitten. The creature seemed to be very familiar to people, since it didn't even back away when Homura reached out to it. Cold she might be, but she loves cats. When she took a closer look at one of the kitten's leg, it seemed like it was recently injured. Homura took out her small handkerchief and wrapped it around the wounded leg securely. She sighed and let the kitten nuzzle her hand, "You're welcome… I'll take you home if I can but just… sorry, little friend," she said, standing up.

"Maaan, now what am I supposed to say to Kyosuke? I told him I'd get that CD for him today and he was so excited!" Sayaka's voice was heard from the main gates. That, for Homura, should've been a signal for her to run, but she decided to walk away slowly because she didn't want to unnecessarily waste her energy.

"Dude, is that a code? You still blame me?" Kyoko's voice. Time to quicken the pace.

"Guuuys, come on, that's enough. I'll help Sayaka-chan explain things to Kamijou-kun so please stop the fight!" And then there was Madoka. That was the final alert for Homura to run off. She quickly took a sharp turn, right at the moment when those three girls got out from the school gate. Stupidly enough, Homura stopped after turning. Somehow she wanted to make sure that none of them noticed her.

"But really, that transfer student sure acted like some sort of cold jerk," Sayaka protested, "I won't tap that if I were you, Madoka."

'_Well I sure won't want you to tap me anyway.'_

Pissed off, Homura was about to continue walking right before she heard Madoka yelling slightly, "Sayaka-chan! Don't judge people like that! We haven't known her. She's probably just shy, you know… a-and it doesn't seem like she's very good at communicating…"

"You read people like a book, Piglet!" Kyoko exclaimed, "Homerun barely talks to you and you already know that much?"

"It's just a probability… besides I told you that we haven't known her," Madoka explained, lowering her voice.

Homura decided to stop eavesdropping and focused on her way home. She appreciated how Madoka treated her kindly, but it was still hard for Homura to consider her as someone closer than a classmate-a friend. Then again, she had to admit that Madoka was right, they hadn't known her. Sighing, Homura flipped her hair, "Maybe I was a bit too cold at her…"

"_You'll probably run away again."_

She chuckled bitterly. It seemed like her past would never stop kicking in. Not even when she wanted things to be peaceful. Not even when she tried to be a better person. All those things would just interfere, either from the back of her head or from her nightmares. She knew very well that things in her life would never go smoothly. One thing she didn't know, though, was that the moment she stepped into Mitakihara Junior High, everything had started to change.

* * *

**A/N: **I fucking love my forehead. For those looking for Mami, she'll be around in chapter 2.

Oh yeah, Happy New Year guys.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** From how my mental note goes, this story will be quite long. Owell, thanks for the reviews, guys! To RacheltheBooksandAnimeGeek, yeah, cause I don't like to leave Mami as a forever alone. I still laugh at jokes about her being alone, though, but if it's played for drama then nawp. Double thanks to Psykoakuma for the "Kyo-suck-e" mentioned somewhere down below. I like that nickname.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own PMMM. Never will. If I do, however, Homura will always smile brightly until Madoka is blinded and they live happily ever after.

* * *

**Chapter 2****: The Little Girl's Second Day**

Waking up with a start really wasn't a good way to begin your day. Everything that passed by Homura made her even sleepier. She clearly was overthinking about how she should get through this day. Her eyes were getting even heavier when she got into the classroom. When she approached her desk, her thigh slammed onto the sharp edge of the desk, making her eyes jerk open… along with her mouth that let out a quite loud gasp. She was pretty lucky that the classroom wasn't that crowded.

"I-I've just been shot…" She murmured dramatically, her hand gripping tight on the spot where it hurt the most as she set her bag down and carefully walked over to her seat. Honestly, she wanted to fully wake herself, but _this_ was a little too much for her nerves.

_Someone_ just had to smear insult all over the injury by seeing that incident.

And that _someone_ happened to be Kyoko. She was staring at Homura, holding back a brutal laugh. Homura glared at her, rubbing at her poor thigh, hoping that there wouldn't be any bruises. Kyoko slowly walked to her with a lopsided grin. A grin that looked as if it mocked her pain. A grin that looked as if what happened just now was the most humiliating thing she ever saw. A grin that-"Yo Homerun. That looked like a nice breakfast, eh."

'_Oh yes, I'd love to give you some. With cherry on top.'_

"… Very funny," Homura said quietly as she regained her cool. She looked around, making sure that no one else saw that. But if possible, she really preferred someone else would see that instead of Kyoko.

The redhead finally let out the laugh she had been holding. Better now than later when her other friends have arrived, because they might ask about what made her laugh and that would probably be the last thing they'd ever hear from Sakura Kyoko. She sat on Madoka's seat, taking out a stick of Pocky and plucked it into her mouth, "Weeeeell anyway, let bygones be bygones. How was your first day?"

"Not so fine," Homura answered with a frown. She was about to take out a novel and wave Kyoko off, but when she wanted to bend down, her thigh hurt badly and she refrained from making too much movement. She glanced over to the redhead, who seemed to expect something more to come out from her mouth. _'Might as well vomit.'_ "I was in my worst mood yesterday, so… I don't think it was good."

"Oh yeah? Guess it was a matter of timing, then. Made any friends yet?" Kyoko asked, tossing a piece of candy onto Homura's desk, "That'll help shoo the ouchies."

"No, not yet and I hope it stays like this for some time… also please don't use baby talks on me. I heard you swore like a crazy woman set on fire yesterday so it looks really out of place. But thanks for the candy," the dark haired girl muttered, fumbling with the candy before unwrapping it, then tossing it into her mouth.

Kyoko chuckled, "Ha, no biggie. Seems like me and that blue idiot made a pretty huge scene yesterday, huh? Her mouth sure doesn't match with her ass-"

"I will ignore you if you talk about her flat lumps of fat," Homura jabbed quickly.

"-Okay my bad. Ohhhh here goes my beautiful senpai and her homemade lunch! Over here, Mami-san!" Kyoko waved at a blonde girl who was looking around with a wrapped lunchbox in her hands. The girl smiled and walked towards Kyoko.

'_Walking oh so proudly with a fake smile. Not so bad.'_

"Sakura-san, I'm sorry if the lunch today might be a little simpler than the usual because I didn't wake up that early. Nagisa-chan was almost late too," Mami said, handing over the lunchbox to the excited redhead.

"No worries Mami-san! And say that I'm sorry to Nagisa, kay?" Kyoko said as Mami gave her thumbs up, "Ah yeah, this is Homeru-I mean, Akemi Homura. She's new here."

Mami turned around and smiled at Homura, "Hello Akemi-san. I'm Tomoe Mami, a senior. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Pleasure to meet you too, Tomoe-san," Homura answered, nodding in approval.

"Well, since I still have to finish several bits of my essay, I'm going back to my classroom. I'll see you two later," Mami said as she walked towards the door.

"See ya!" Kyoko shrugged, "Saaay, she's quite motherly, ain't she?"

"I think so…" Homura trailed off when she saw Madoka and Sayaka walk into the classroom, along with a green haired girl. Great. She really thought just what kind of genes those people had to get those oddly colored hairs. Her eyes involuntarily met Madoka's. The pinkette quickly averted her gaze away. Homura sighed, thinking that she really needed to fix this, considering how things went between her and Madoka yesterday. Seeing the girls approach her, Kyoko quickly stood up and scurried back to her seat after giving Homura a light punch on her upper arm. Well for Kyoko, it was a light punch. For Homura, there would be two bruises to worry about now.

The atmosphere was slightly heavy when Madoka quietly took a seat. Leaning back on her seat, Homura took a glance at the smaller girl, taking note of how uneasy she looked. Sometimes Madoka would peer at the raven-haired girl or fidget in her seat, not even bothering to greet her. Now it was starting to make Homura feel bad. She looked towards the green-haired girl that came into class with Madoka and Sayaka, dragging her attention away. Sayaka gave Homura a look before turning back to talk with the green-haired girl, who then looked at Homura, puzzled. Homura nodded in acknowledgement, as if understanding that the girl was asking her silently about who she is. It seemed like Sayaka was introducing Homura to that girl, considering how the girl gave her a smile in return.

The longer she stayed in her seat, the more awkward the atmosphere got between her and Madoka. Then the more awkward it was, the more anxiety it caused Homura. Not wanting to take it any longer, Homura stood up and left the classroom, choosing that taking in some fresh air at the rooftop would be a good choice to wait for the class to start. It really would be a good choice since she only had that or staying in her seat, which would threaten her to fall asleep during class because she was in need of more sleep and Madoka wouldn't even say a thing to keep her awake.

"_See? I knew it. You ran away again."_

… Somehow Homura started to feel the need of explaining to Madoka just how grim her mood was yesterday.

* * *

The sun was radiating brilliantly as the clouds gave no sign of getting in its way. Unfortunately, it just had to be during the PE class, a class that Homura couldn't stay to participate in for long even in cloudy days. She had to excuse herself, since she was feeling very lightheaded just by doing several warm-ups. Good thing that the teacher immediately gave an approval, telling her to take a rest under a nearby tree and wait until the period is done. The tree's shades were enough to shelter her from the sun's stinging heat. Looking around as her classmates were doing the main activity, she thought that it really was peaceful seeing them like that. Being an observer had always been her favorite thing to do. Though Kyoko and Sayaka seemed to argue about something again, they looked like they were having fun judging from how Kyoko would give Sayaka a sly grin every time the blue haired girl puffed her cheeks in temporary defeat.

'_It must be fun to have someone you can trust to spill your opinions at…'_

When she scanned the field to look for some other interesting things, her gaze fell upon the pinkette she had been subconsciously looking for. The teacher was talking to her as a concerned look immediately flashed on her face. Homura tilted her head, wondering if they were talking about her now that she remembered that Madoka was the health officer for her class. She sighed as she straightened her legs and rested her head to the tree's trunk. The slow breeze that went through her body was alluring her to fall asleep.

Right at the moment when she thought she really was going to fall into slumber and brutally flail around like she always did when she sleeps, she felt a warm, wet towel being put on her forehead after a soft hand swept her bangs backward. Opening her eyes slowly, an unsure face with dark pink eyes showed up, completely obstructing her view of the tree's swaying leaves.

"Ah! I-I'm sorry, the teacher asked me if I can accompany you or help you in any way possible but I thought you were sleeping and I-"

"Thank you," Homura muttered, pressing the towel on her forehead to keep it in place as she adjusted her position.

"U-Umm…" Madoka fidgeted after blinking in confusion for a split second, "… Y-You're welcome!"

Homura looked straight to the field, but her attention was definitely on the pinkette standing nervously next to her. She could feel that Madoka was about to say something more, but chose to keep her mouth shut. Homura pinched the bridge of her nose, a bit irritated of the moment anyone would've seen as awkward, "… You know, why don't you just sit down?" She patted the spot next to her, "I need to sort things ou-" _'No no no, not like that,' _"-I mean, talk."

"Umm… uuhhh… ehhh… err…"

"If you don't sit down and keep making those noises, you'll be giving people weird ideas."

"Awawawa! S-Sorry!" Madoka panicked, quickly sitting down.

Forging scripts in her mind, Homura took a leaf that fell near her feet, fumbling with it. She _did_ say that she was going to talk. Easier said than done, it was.

'_Okay, let's do this.'_

"You see-"

"UWAAAHH! SAYAKA-CHAN! WHY DID YOU KICK THE BALL?! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO DODGE IT!"

'_What in the heaven's name was that,'_ Homura muttered mentally, her eyes widening in shock as she jumped slightly at how loud Madoka yelled. Given how the others reacted normally to Madoka's sudden yelling, Homura presumed that this happened pretty often. Meanwhile, Sayaka just gave Madoka a sheepish laugh before getting a ball land gracefully on her face in full speed, courtesy of Kyoko. That redhead never ceased to amuse herself by abusing Sayaka. Pissed off, Sayaka took the ball and started yet another personal cold war between her and Kyoko. The rest of the players backed off, knowing that being involved would result in either physical injuries or losing their ability to hear.

Madoka took a deep breath and turned her head around to look at Homura, "I'm sorry, what was that?"

"Be-Before I get to the main topic," Homura said, "I should warn you that I have a weak heart, in case you haven't known. And since we're seatmates… I don't advise you to do that again when I'm being this close to you."

The pinkette had to process the thought in her head for a moment. She then gasped, "Oh… oh my, I'm sorry! Are you alright?"

"I am, I am, but just don't do that again or at least give me a warning," Homura said, pressing the towel even harder to her forehead in a motion to calm herself down.

From the corner of her eyes, she could see Madoka had a relieved look flash on her face before changing it into a puzzled look, "If you say so… then… What do you want to talk about?

Homura cleared her throat, deciding to look at Madoka in the eyes in order to make sure that the smaller girl wouldn't get her attention being taken away by anything else, "Listen, yesterday, I probably left a bad impression to everyone in the class. What I'm saying is that I was in the worst mood I've ever had, I was tired and I really, really didn't want to get anyone to know me yet. So if I made you feel uneasy or uncomfortable, the blame is on me. I'm not mad at you or anything, alright? I thought I'd let you know because you're my seatmate, and you were…" She paused, "… you were nice to me, but… I hope you can understand."

"I see… okay, I'm so-"

"Enough with the apologies, you're fine," Homura said, suddenly softening her voice after noticing how baffled Madoka was.

Seeing Madoka's eyes well up slightly, Homura was pretty confused. Did she say something wrong? Was Madoka really that apologetic to the point that when someone told her to stop apologizing, she'd cry? The thoughts somehow ceased when a gentle smile appeared on the cheery girl's lips, "Haha… I thought Kyoko-chan was joking when she said that you were in a really bad mood… it's a huge relief… I thought you didn't like me."

Rolling her eyes, Homura took the wet towel off, noticing how ridiculous she must've looked like when she sorted things out just now with that thing splayed beautifully on her forehead. She stared into the field again, absentmindedly asking, "Say, shouldn't you go back?"

Madoka shook her head, "Teach told me to stay here with you in case something happens."

'_I feel like a criminal…'_

"Oh, alright," Homura muttered shortly.

"You don't mind?" Madoka asked, twiddling her fingers.

Raising an eyebrow, Homura said, "I don't mind. What, you don't happen to bite people, do you?"

"Of course I don't!" The pinkette responded with a giggle.

"Then I'm fine having you around," Homura ended as she flipped her hair. The sun was so shiny to the point she had to squint to focus her eyes while looking around. Letting out a relaxed sigh, she hugged her knees, resting her chin on one of them. Now that she thought about it again, she really should bring up something to talk about since Madoka didn't stop from fidgeting and swaying her body from side to side while humming a tune. The girl just couldn't hold herself to move around even for a minute, "Hey, by the way, you came to the class with Miki Sayaka and a green-haired girl, right?"

"Mmhmm, what's with it?"

"Err… what's her name? I don't remember I've seen her yesterday."

"Shizuki Hitomi. She's a good friend of mine!" Madoka said.

Homura played with her forelocks, humming in response. Yup, that was pretty much it. She decided to keep the moment as it is, quiet and peaceful, despite Madoka shifting here and there. A leaf slowly fell in front of Homura's face. She blew it away, remembering the habit she had ever since she was little. Every time something gets too close to her face, she'd blow it away because it distracted her from whatever she was staring at. It ceased from time to time ever since she stayed at the hospital for months. Nothing ever moved so close to her face anymore, there weren't many moving things in her hospital room other than the nurse that had always been doing simple check-ups on her. Now that she did it again, it really brought back some memories.

"Umm… Akemi-san?" Madoka called out.

"I'm listening," Homura said.

Madoka took a deep breath, "… Can I… Can I call you Homura-chan?"

Hearing that, Homura flinched. She wasn't quite sure what to answer. Gritting her teeth, she decided to throw a question back at the smaller girl, "Why do you want to call me that?"

"W-Well! It's unique!" _'No,'_ "Uhh… I'm not saying that it's weird or anything…" _'God, please don't make her say it,'_ "It's unique in a cool way! I-It sounds cool!"

'… _I can't believe this.'_

Homura went quiet immediately, her eyebrows furrowing. Madoka knew that it was a really uncomfortable silence, judging from how Homura didn't look as peaceful as she was. When she opened her mouth to apologize for God-knows-how-many times, Homura peered over at her, "Don't. You didn't do anything wrong. Frankly, whatever you want to call me, it's alright. I let Sakura Kyoko call me Homerun. So…" Homura paused, "… yeah, you can, I guess."

Eyes widening, Homura could feel something funny in her chest when she saw how genuinely happy Madoka was. She didn't know that allowing her to do such a simple thing would mean so much for the other girl. This way, Madoka looked so innocent. She cheered happily, "Yay! I'm feeling so much better now! I know that you don't want to get anyone to know you yet, but… well, I think I'll start things over by calling you Homura-chan as a first step!"

Starting things over sounded good. Maybe she could be a little nicer to Madoka. After all, she even got so troubled just because she wanted to call Homura by her given name. Homura gave Madoka a warm look, muttering quietly, "… only a little nicer, yeah."

"_Homura-chan, why did you get out?"_

'_I'm sorry, Mother.'_

* * *

"Kyo-tan, you know, my face still hurts," Sayaka grunted, pressing an ice bag on her cheek.

"What, now you're blaming me for your fucking ugly face, Bluey? What the heck is wrong with you," Kyoko replied casually, munching on a stick of Pocky.

"The second one's supposed to be my question, you dimwit," Sayaka retorted.

Kyoko turned around, pressing her index finger on Sayaka's forehead as she walked backwards, "Listen here, I thought you'd look pretty with that ball on your face. I was helping you to look soooooo much better but you got angry at me instead. I felt so dishonored, little girl. Why don't you try visiting that Kyo-suck-eh kiddo with a ball stuck on your face? His arm would be okay in a matter of seconds."

"HEY! IT'S KYO-SHOO-KAY, ALRIGHT?! Why do you always read his name in the wrong way and what does my face have anything to do with his freaking arm?!" Sayaka yelled as her free hand smacked Kyoko's hand away.

"Come oooon! Stop the fight! People are looking…"

'_My ears hurt…'_

It was quite unfortunate for Homura to be dragged along by both Madoka and Kyoko to walk back home with them. Apparently, Hitomi had already excused herself to go home earlier because she had some lessons to attend to. Homura wanted to refuse, knowing that Sayaka and Kyoko would cause a commotion like this but because they ended up walking in the same direction, she had no other choice. However, she had some time to look around the neighborhood this time, since they'd sometimes stop thanks to Sayaka and Kyoko's bickering over small things or wait for Madoka while she bought some groceries along the way. It wasn't a bad view, though, considering how Homura barely had any time to look around back then and that her house was surrounded by ominous looking buildings, much like hers.

Kyoko snorted, ignoring Madoka's words, "Psh! Come on. You're just-" Her back slammed onto someone, "-HOLY FUCK WHOSE BOOBS ARE THESE-" She turned around, blood draining from her face when she saw Mami squinting at her with her arms crossed, "… Oh. Hai."

"Hello, any problem with my assets, Sakura-san?" Mami asked, her voice menacing as an eerie smile showed up on her lips, "Swearing that much on a daily basis is unhealthy."

"Apple-chan!" A white haired girl greeted cheerfully, in complete contrast to Mami's greeting, "Berry-chan! Melon-chan! Hiiii!" She said, waving at the others.

Homura tilted her head. She leaned closer to Madoka and whispered, "I know Tomoe-san, but… who's that?"

Madoka whispered back, "That's Momoe Nagisa. She lives with Mami-san," she then waved at the little girl in return.

'_Oh, adorable.'_

When Nagisa looked at her, a questioning look on her face, Homura gave a small wave to her. The girl gleefully ran up to Homura, completely ignoring Mami, Kyoko and Sayaka who seemed to be… having quite some fun. Nagisa tugged on Homura's sleeve, "Hello, I'm Nagisa. What's your name?"

"Akemi Homura, nice to meet you, Nagisa," Homura answered, making sure that she didn't sound too cold.

"And you are the…?" Nagisa asked again.

Seeing the dark haired girl's confused face, Madoka giggled, whispering how to answer that question at her. Homura let out an amused sigh, "… Pumpkin."

"Well nice to meet you too, Pumpkin-chan!" Nagisa cheered as she gave Homura a quick hug. She turned around, got back to Mami's side and calmed her down, since she looked like she was about to explode anytime soon.

Madoka couldn't help but snicker at Homura's choice of fruit. Of all things, she could've thought of a simpler thing. Homura felt a bit disturbed by Madoka's non-stop snickering and turned her head to look at the girl, "Recommend me something next time if you find my answer laughable."

"D-Don't be mad, I'm sorry. I just didn't think that p-pumpkin would s-show up in your head the moment I mentioned f-fruits!" Madoka said, desperately holding back her laugh.

Homura rolled her eyes, a bit annoyed, "Says the one that answered with melon."

"I was on an errand to buy some melons that day when I met her. I have my excuse, Homura-chan!" Madoka explained.

"Well I have my excuse too, Kaname-san," Homura murmured under her sigh. At this time in the evening, Homura would usually sit down and read some books. Now there she was, with the people she just met recently. As many fun as they gave her when she was in their company, she still felt a bit afraid. She was afraid that she'd end up being too attached like what happened back then… like when she was… wait, no, not now. She couldn't think of that at this moment. Biting her lip, Homura thought about something else that could make her feel at peace.

'_You loved pumpkins, didn't you, Mother?'_

* * *

**A/N: **Nagisa's nicknames to everyone are based on The Cake Song. In case you haven't known. Yeeeeaaaahhh Bebelicious. There'll be sparks of dokidoki and more drama (I guess, cause I kind of suck at writing serious stuff without throwing in some humor here and there) in chapter 3 'cause I want to make it longer than the first chapter and this one.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **How come I forgot to upload this, lol. Again, thanks for the reviews~ To Timmy Sparx, it's Badass Homura, only a little snarky and she's still got that unspecified heart disease. This'll be kinda important later on. Been having some kind of writer's block lately so I'll just go all angst in a corner. Hope you can enjoy this hella long thingy!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own PMMM. If I do, I'll make Tatsuya fly.

* * *

**Chap****ter 3: The Kitten and The Sleepover**

Yet another serene morning in Mitakihara. The sky was cloudy, but showed no sign of rain. It was slightly windy too, so no wonder the classroom was pretty quiet thanks to more than half of the inhabitants falling asleep due to the weather. After flipping the pages of her novel mindlessly, Homura decided to just put it back into her bag and prepared to make her way to the rooftop. Then Sayaka and Hitomi walked in, looking rather confused. The absence of a certain someone made the dark haired girl feel uneasy. It was her fifth day already, which would mean that she had seen Madoka walk into the classroom with those two for quite some time. Not seeing her with them really was a bit off.

"Madoka isn't here? Huh, didn't her mother say that she already went to school?" Sayaka said as she set her bag down.

"Maybe she has something to do…" Hitomi answered, glancing over to the empty seat next to Homura.

"If she does, then she'd usually give one of us a call, right? Oh well it's probably really urgent," Sayaka finished, grinning when she saw Kyoko fast asleep with her mouth hanging open. She tiptoed towards the redhead's seat as her hands reached out for Kyoko's bag. Rummaging through it, her eyes brightened, looking as if she found something she had been looking for. Homura raised an eyebrow, a bit interested in what the girl was about to do. More like curious, though, since she hadn't seen Sayaka returning any of Kyoko's abuse yet. That or the blue haired girl already tried, but since Kyoko was obviously a lot more skilled in trolling, none of them had any effect to the redhead. Sayaka took out the thing from the bag, raising it up high enough for Homura to see. A taiyaki, still in its plastic wrap.

'… _That's a really cheap trick,'_ Homura facepalmed.

"Ah, Sayaka-san, are you going to take that from her? What if she wakes up hungry?" Hitomi asked in concern.

Sayaka's grin got even wider at Hitomi's question, "No, no, no, you're going to see the best way to wake up a big, noisy eater!" she half-whispered.

Her hands messed with the plastic wrap carefully in order not to make too much noise. She snickered when she could finally initiate her plan. Kyoko's mouth was gaping quite wide, wide enough for half of the taiyaki to get in. Sayaka slowly put the cake into the redhead's mouth as her face got even redder from holding back a triumphant laugh. To her surprise, however, Kyoko didn't even budge. What happened instead was the taller girl's mouth curved up in a smile as she chewed on the cake casually, like when she was awake. The smug grin was scraped off Sayaka's face as her plan crumbled apart in front of her just by a simple movement from a sleeping Kyoko. Sighing in frustration, Sayaka stomped back to her seat as her cheeks puffed in annoyance.

"Bingo," Homura whispered uninterestedly to herself, knowing just how obvious Sayaka's plan was and how obvious the reaction that Kyoko would give, _'Why did I get curious anyway…?'_ Well, she would have chosen to join the others for a good sleep in the morning. But today she was feeling so-so, not tired, and not energetic or anything. Plain.

The classroom's door slid open, revealing a small figure with pink hair and a tired face. Madoka walked into the class with her body slightly slouched forwards and gave a weak smile to Sayaka and Hitomi, chatting for a moment after bowing to them, muttering some apologies. She then continued to walk to her seat and sat down, sighing, "Hey Homura-chan."

"Hmm," Homura hummed in return, still wondering why the pinkette was being a little off. Looking over at the clock, she played with her forelocks, "You're almost late, you know."

"Ehe, yeah… but I think it's not so bad," Madoka said, ending the sentence with a yawn.

"Not so bad?"

"Being late isn't all that bad," the smaller girl continued as she took out her note and placed it on her desk, not quite sure about what she was doing.

Same goes for Homura, she didn't know what Madoka was about to say nor what she was doing. Raising an eyebrow, Homura asked, "Are you okay?"

"Me? Oh…" Madoka paused, "Y-Yeah, I'm okay! I just didn't have enough sleep last night."

"Alright," Homura murmured shortly. Sure, Madoka looked kind of tired, but she also looked pretty troubled over something. The way those pink eyebrows were furrowing explained just about that much. A few seconds later, the bell rang, making the pinkette sigh deeply. Apparently, Math would be the first subject they'd have to survive through in the morning. Homura took out her note, letting her thoughts go away from Madoka for a moment. She watched as the teacher walked into the classroom, carrying some files with him. Most of the students quickly woke up when they heard the door being opened, but it would seem that Kyoko needed extra help other than her seatmate who was busy shaking the redhead's body to wake her up. It wasn't like the Math teacher was a strict person or anything, but that taiyaki in her mouth sure would attract some attention.

The lecture was quite interesting, really, judging from the amount of her classmates that managed to stay awake. When Homura glanced over to Madoka, the girl was fast asleep. Homura sighed as she put her hand on Madoka's shoulder, about to wake her up. Then she could feel how tired Madoka really was, how deeply she needed sleep from the way her breathing was so relaxed. Frowning, Homura made a second thought, knowing that if she was in Madoka's position, she wouldn't want to be woken up. True, Madoka might be really different from the kind of person Homura was, but no one wanted to get themselves up from a good sleep. Not like Homura ever had that much of a good sleep ever since _that_ incident, but still, she understood the feeling.

"_Not all rules are made for our good, so sometimes it's okay to just break them."_

'_Fine then,'_ she thought as she slowly reached out for Madoka's note, opening the middle page. The trick might be really old and lame, but it was effective. She made the note stand in front of Madoka, making sure that it was enough to obstruct the teacher's view of the sleeping girl. Or at least, faking it as if Madoka was reading her note. Granted, the note was pretty big, so it was enough to conceal a full fluffy pink head. Homura coughed to her fist as she returned her attention back at the teacher. In the process, somehow, she noticed that Sayaka was staring at her with a sly grin on her face. Not wanting to look like an idiot, Homura glanced back at the blue haired girl, looking at the girl's forehead instead of those light blue eyes as she shrugged her shoulders. Sayaka giggled, giving two thumbs up to Homura.

Through the rest of the lecture, Homura caught several glimpses on Madoka's sleeping face. A contented smile showed up on Madoka's tiny lips. The dark haired girl took her pencil and refrained to continue chewing the eye candy known as Madoka by starting to write down her notes, in case she forgot anything… or maybe in case Madoka wanted to borrow her notebook. What she didn't notice was that there were hints of pink spread across her pale cheeks while her hand was busy writing down stuff, thanks to the amount of time she spent staring at the pinkette next to her.

* * *

"So move on to the next question! Kyo-tan, I choose you!" Sayaka exclaimed.

"I have no idea what I'm even doing here…" Homura muttered quietly. Still, it was loud enough for Madoka to hear.

"I think this is fun," Madoka paused, yawning, "… though I'd prefer to go back to sleep."

"Bring it on, Bluey!" Kyoko yelled as she pumped her fist in the air.

The four girls ended up engaging in an 'interrogation game' at lunch. They had already finished their lunch, and there was still some time left before lunchtime is over, so each of them started brainstorming for any games to play. Madoka suggested Truth or Dare, but Kyoko objected, saying that playing that game would be so much fun at Mami's house or something. The redhead herself suggested tug of war, but of course she received no's from the others. Who the hell would play tug of war without anything to tug on? Homura passed her turn, not wanting to suggest anything ridiculous for the sake of her sanity. She knew very well that playing a game with these girls would end up in causing a ruckus. Sayaka came up with her so-called 'brilliant idea', suggesting a game where they could ask everyone a question in turns.

Well, at first that was rejected too by the rest, especially Homura.

Then Kyoko changed her thoughts, saying that it might be good for them to get to know more about each other. That was when Homura was about to leave, since she really didn't want to play games like that. After she stood up, Madoka tugged her sleeve, asking her to sit back down and promised that they wouldn't ask her anything personal. Kyoko and Sayaka were confused as to why Madoka reassured her that, but Homura remembered what she said to Madoka three days ago, so she gave another thought before finally sitting back down. Homura could definitely see that the other two girls were grinning at each other, like having the same thoughts. She sighed and looked out of the window, letting her eyes relax upon watching the trees outside while waiting for any of them to question her.

So far, though, none of them had asked her any question, which she was grateful for.

"Do you have a crush on someone?" Sayaka asked with a huge grin.

"A crush? The hell, dude, that's a really clichéd question," Kyoko said as she made a thoughtful face, "I thiiiiink… nope. Yeeeaahaha, nope. But I _am_ in love with Mami-san's foods. Damn man, those are hot and yummy."

"Like, seriously Kyo-tan? Can't you have a crush on something that breathes?" Sayaka asked again, scrunching her nose.

"Hold it right there! One question each turn, pipsqueak. Homerun you're my pick!" Kyoko said as she pointed at Homura.

'_Have mercy on me, God.'_

Homura leaned forwards, placing her elbows on the desk as she rested her chin on the palm of her hand, "Make it simple."

"Heeere gooooesss…" Kyoko stalled. Apparently she knew who to choose, but had no idea of what to ask. After stumbling through the questions in her mind, she continued, "Cats or dogs?"

Homura blinked, "Uhh… cats?"

The redhead nodded in approval and cocked her head to one side, "Well? It's your turn now!"

'_Well… that escalated quickly.'_

"Why am I not surprised?" Sayaka said, slapping her forehead repeatedly.

"Heh, still! We got to know that she likes cats. I was a little more creative than you!" Kyoko said in a mocking tone as Sayaka rolled her eyes, trying not to ruin her game by starting a fight.

Letting out a deep sigh, Homura asked, "Who am I supposed to-"

"Madoka," "Piglet," Sayaka and Kyoko answered together, grinning as they looked at each other. Homura looked at the two of them in disbelief. One moment they were arguing, a few seconds later they'd be best buds. Such unpredictable relationship.

"… So Kaname-san," Homura muttered, her eyes shifting here and there. Madoka only responded with a faint hum, enough to let Homura know that she was listening, "If there's a person that needs you to be by their side in their worst and then act like they never befriended you at all once they're feeling better… what will you do?"

Madoka thought for a moment, twiddling her fingers, "Umm… I'll still be around? I don't know, but if I can make them feel better then I don't really… mind," she certainly paused before ending that sentence, "A-As long as they're not being too rude at me…"

"Y'know Homura, I wasn't expecting a funny question from you or what but that's sorta… how do I put this, too serious?" Sayaka said, raising an eyebrow.

"If Homerun asks something not serious then I'm guessing she's flipping out," Kyoko explained as she munched on a candy.

Madoka giggled sheepishly, "Isn't that a good sign, though? Maybe Homura-chan likes to think deeply about stuff…"

"I… am fine with that statement," Homura murmured.

"Yeah? Then you got the looks of it," Sayaka continued as she stretched her arms, "Your turn, Mado-"

The bell finally rang, cutting off Sayaka's words. The look on her face changed from that of an excited little girl to a kicked little puppy.

"Aw maaaaan!" Sayaka grunted in desperation.

"Ergh, look, Bluey, at least we got to know that Homerun likes cats and Piglet likes porno," Kyoko said casually, patting the blue haired girl's shoulder.

'_Wait, what? Did I miss something here?'_

"Eeehhh? It's Frappuccino, Kyoko-chan…" Madoka corrected with a sheepish smile, sweat-dropping.

'_Oh okay.'_

The redhead blinked, "Oh yeah, that."

"Yeah thanks for the encouragement," Sayaka said with a laugh as she got headlocked by a grinning Kyoko, "Gah! Get your hands off me!"

"No! Let's go to your seat and make some brilliant plans from my awesome ideas and your shitty suggestions!" Kyoko exclaimed, dragging along the struggling blue haired girl with her, "I've got gazillions of nicknames for ya!"

"I don't understand the kind of relationship they have… Kaname-san?" Said Homura as she turned her head around to look at Madoka, only to find the pinkette already got back to sleep. From the looks of it, she was going to sleep through the afternoon classes, and Homura would probably end up messing around in order for Madoka not to get caught sleeping. Thinking about it, she didn't have that much of a solid reason to help Madoka. Maybe sitting with her for five days had softened her up a bit. Then again, she wasn't one to let people get into her life easily anymore, let alone affect her personality…

"_Do you really need a reason to help someone?"_

"_You're awful."_

Homura sighed, placing her hand on her forehead to wave off the voices that whispered at the back of her head just now. She hated those, but the ones of her mother's voice had always been so soothing. At one point, it even helped her to get a nice dream. Not so nice, since it started out as a nightmare, but it was a peaceful night nonetheless.

"_You've grown to be a nice girl, Homura-chan…"_

'_I wonder, though. Can you say that again if you see me now?'_ Homura thought to herself. Would things really go back to the way they were? She didn't know. At first, she was sure nothing would go back, but now that she had these people around her… it ignited a tiny spark of hope. She looked over at Madoka, who was facing at Homura's direction in her sleep. Shrugging, she took one of Madoka's notes and made another obstruction in front of the pinkette, thinking that it would be best to just let things off her mind for now. Madoka smiled yet again as a wave of uneasiness washed through Homura, "… You're… pretending to sleep, aren't you?"

No response.

"No?" An eyebrow rising, Homura faced to the front of the class, watching calmly as the teacher walk in, "… Have a nice dream, then."

* * *

Library had always been a good place as any to look for silence. Homura had taken a liking to the school's library in particular, thanks to the kind librarian and the fact that the students barely visited it. What really ruined the moment today was an incident involving the librarian falling off the ladder she had been using to rearrange the books on the top shelves. Homura was the only one there at that moment, so she helped her up and took her over to the infirmary, hoping that the librarian didn't get any major injuries. After leaving the kind woman to the nurse, Homura excused herself very soon since she didn't want to be a bother. The librarian thanked her as she turned around to be on her way soon. A silent nod was enough to tell the librarian that it was fine, and there was no need to thank her.

Realizing that she had stayed in the library for quite some time and the sky was getting a little darker, Homura sprinted off to the main gates. She regretted it really soon because she ended up running out of breath at the exit. That was probably really stupid of her. It wasn't like anyone would wait for her at home, right? She really should stop thinking that there would be a person to greet her, or get mad at her when she got home late… those days were over. Scratching the back of her head in total frustration, Homura decided to just proceed by walking. Her steps halted when she felt something furry nuzzle against her leg.

"Oh, hello there," Homura muttered, leaning down to pet the black kitten she met on her first day, "I see your leg is alright now." The kitten meowed at her, before perking its ears up and ran past Homura. She turned around to find a tired looking girl with the name of Madoka, now hugging the kitten with a smile on her face.

'_I swear this girl is everywhere.'_

"Hey Amy," Madoka muttered, "I still can't find the one that helped you so…" she trailed off as her eyes drifted to a puzzled-looking pale girl standing several feet away from her, "… Homura-chan?"

"Hm?" Homura nodded, "I thought you've gone home already."

"Ehe, I tripped over when I was walking half-asleep… the floor brought me back to reality and I got a nasty bruise on my forehead," she paused to lift up her bangs, revealing a huge band-aid covering said bruise, "I had to stay in the infirmary for some time… my head felt funny. And then there was the librarian, I couldn't just leave the nurse to take care of her alone. Good thing she was brought to us immediately after the incident happened, so the injury didn't have the chance to get any worse! And then… what were you doing?"

Homura shook her head, "Nothing in particular. I was about to go home."

The kitten leaped out from Madoka's grasp, quickly running over to Homura's side as it nuzzled the girl's leg again. Madoka giggled at the interaction, "She likes you, I think…"

"You think?" Homura repeated as she picked the kitten up, carrying it and walked towards Madoka.

"She doesn't just randomly get affectionate to people. By the way, her leg was injured some time ago. Someone was kind enough to help her by using a handkerchief. Whoever it was, I've been looking for that person for the past four days. Yesterday was the longest because I really crossed the line by looking around the whole Mitakihara. Mama was kind of furious, hehe… though, I just want to return this," Madoka said while rummaging through her bag and taking out a handkerchief, "Also, I want to thank that person. Without this, that wound would've gotten infected and… ah I don't want to imagine it."

"Uh…" Homura really didn't know what to say. So _that_ was what exhausted Madoka? She was searching the whole area just to return a piece of cloth and thank a person she could find just by turning her head to the side at the classroom? A sigh escaped her lips while her free hand reached out for said handkerchief, "You're welcome."

Not knowing what Homura really meant, Madoka looked at the ravenette with a questioning look, her mouth gaping slightly in confusion. She was always a little slow when it comes down to indirect implications. Homura tilted her head to the side, getting a bit confused herself. The pinkette chuckled sheepishly, "Err…?"

"It's… mine?" Homura added a little detail, and saw that Madoka was still clueless, "That's why… she's getting along with me?" Another detail and Homura realized just how clueless a tired Madoka could be, "… Really? Fine, I was the one that helped her."

"Oh okay then," Madoka said as she handed the handkerchief over. She went quiet for a moment before those dark pink eyes widen in realization, "Wait, you were, Homura-chan?!"

'_That's a little too slow…'_

"You know, I highly suggest you to get a really good rest once you're back home. Anyways, what was her name again?" Homura asked as the kitten nuzzled her cheek.

"So cute…" Madoka mumbled inaudibly with a blush, "Aaaah! I mean, Amy! Her name's Amy!"

Homura's eyebrows rose, "What are you so flustered for?" She said as she put Amy back down, "Well, Amy it is. My name is Homura," she felt a little ridiculous introducing herself to a cat in front of someone she knew. But there was a feeling that told her, it would be okay. It was Madoka, and it would be okay.

"H-Homura-chan," Madoka called as Homura straightened herself, "Umm, thanks again."

Flipping her hair, Homura responded, "No problem. I should be going now. See you late-"

"Wait, wait," Madoka tugged on the dark haired girl's sleeve. She remembered, the first time Madoka did this, all she wanted to do was just to pull away and get as far as she could, but now she was willing to listen. After all, sooner or later, she would have to get used to this girl's friendliness and there should be no objection. Madoka swallowed hard, "There will be a sleepover at Mami-san's place tomorrow. She invited Kyoko-chan, Sayaka-chan, me, and… you. I was a little surprised when she mentioned your name, but she told me that you look like a really nice person… well more like Kyoko-chan suggested us to invite you too and we agreed, so… will you go?"

Homura backed away a bit. Now it was her turn to get all clueless, "Excuse… me?"

"It's okay if you don't want to go, though," Madoka said, a shy smile adorning her lips, "Mami-san said that it would be a good chance for us to know more about you. Well… it's been five days, so I thought that you might want to open up a little too."

"But I… you…" She couldn't find any right excuse this time. Why? It was so easy for her to reject any of Madoka's kindness to her several days ago. Thinking about it for too long wouldn't be a good thing, either. So she replied with what she thought best, "… I guess I'll go," Homura murmured, earning a hopeful look from the pinkette, "Just because I don't have anything to do for this weekend. You won't get much out of me, though."

"R-Really?! You will?!" Madoka cheered, "Thank you very much, Homura-chan!"

"Why are you thanking me?" Homura asked with a frown.

"I don't know! I'm just really glad you'll come along. Oh, do you have a cellphone?" Madoka asked.

Nodding, Homura took it out, "That reminds me. Let me save your number."

A slight blush on Madoka's cheeks as she also took out her phone, "I kind of envy the way you don't mince words…"

"It's convenient," Homura replied as her fingers typed Madoka's number that was shown on the girl's phone screen, "I'll give you a call later. Keep my number after that."

Madoka hummed happily in response. Another step to get closer to Homura, it would seem. Looking down on her feet, Homura could see that Madoka's mood affected Amy too, since the creature was swaying her tail from side to side gleefully. Not a bad sight. It was probably one of the most peaceful moments she could have with someone by her side, just like that time when she made up with Madoka. Maybe it was that she gave her a sense of peace, despite her bubbly attitude.

Her eyes found a leaf that fell on top of Madoka's head, gently resting on that oddly pink hair of hers. She absentmindedly moved her hand up the girl's head and brushed the leaf away. Noticing that they had been standing there without saying a thing for a few seconds, Homura broke the silence, "See you, Kaname-san."

"A-Ah, yeah! See you!" Madoka said as she waved her hands, watching Homura walk away. She was actually a little flustered at what Homura did just now. That was practically the closest interaction she had with Homura. She looked down at Amy, who was looking at her with expectant eyes, "Next time, we'll definitely hang out with her a little longer, Amy."

* * *

To be very honest, Homura never liked to step outside of her house on weekends. She wasn't really looking forward to the sleepover, but something told her just to hurry up and go. If she were to turn everything down, there would be no point. She didn't regret her choice yesterday or anything, but the feeling of going out from her house was weird. That, or she was the weird one. Carrying a mid-sized bag filled with her belongings over her shoulder, Homura took out her phone to see the message she got from Madoka about Mami's address.

'_This should be it. Not so big but it sure stands out.'_

Stopping in front of a moderate-looking apartment building, Homura double-checked the address to make sure she didn't get lost. Her cellphone buzzed, it was a text from Madoka.

_Heeeeyyyyyy :DDD Where r u rn?_

Homura sighed, her head bringing up the thoughts that she shouldn't just walk in and mindlessly look for Mami's place. She quickly typed in the reply.

_In front of the apartment building you told me. Dunno where exactly her place is._

While waiting for the pinkette to response to her text, Homura leaned her back to the walls, staring up at the sky in a gesture to relax herself down before meeting those people outside of school. She really wished that she had chosen a better outfit other than an oversized purple shirt and a pair of black leggings. She looked even more like a midget when wearing oversized stuff, but she liked to wear things that could make her comfortable, not the ones that would make her look good. There would be no one to impress anyway. She jerked back to a standing position when she finally got the reply. Madoka sure could snap Homura out of her thoughts no matter whatever she was thinking about.

_Ah ok :3 Nagisa-chan's gonna pick u up in a few sec, be patient kay? :D_

Homura raised an eyebrow as she stood in front of the building's doorway, waiting for Nagisa to burst out of the door. She couldn't help herself to imagine that she was going to yell 'Pumpkin-chaan!' while holding up two orange pompoms. Rather than replying to Madoka's… happy texts with some business-like ones, Homura decided to play along and mentally kicked herself, silently forcing her fingers to type the message.

_Okay :)_

After sending it, her cheeks felt quite warm from embarrassment as she pressed the phone to her forehead. If it was so hard for her just to send a text with a smiley on it, then smiling in real life would take forever for her. Although Madoka probably didn't mind that much about it, Homura certainly wasn't used to expressing herself in any way.

The sound of doors sliding open quickly brought her view back to the doorway, which now had a white-haired little girl clad in black dress with pink polka-dots standing in front of it. Throwing Homura off her guard, Nagisa swiftly glomped Homura, "Pumpkin-chaan!"

'_I knew it. Minus the pompoms, though.'_

Homura was still thankful that she had those good reflexes of hers, if not, they could've fallen to the ground and it would be pretty embarrassing, seeing how Nagisa was still an elementary student. Without thinking, her arms returned the little girl's hug, "Hello Nagisa."

Looking up to her, Nagisa smiled, "We've been waiting for you! I thought you wouldn't come."

"Sorry I'm late. I kind of overslept," _'Lame excuse, you're always a sloth in weekends,' _"Everyone else's already there?"

"Nope," Nagisa said as she let go of Homura, "Berry-chan said she'd be around soon after visiting Kyo… something-san at the hospital. Apple-chan's already eating some of the snacks, Melon-chan's helping to clean up the guest's bedroom and Mami-nee went to the supermarket to buy some things for dinner."

"Yeah? Well, let's go there then," Homura muttered, putting her phone back into her bag, "I'll see if I can help with anything."

"Yay!" Nagisa cheered as they began walking, "By the way, Pumpkin-chan, you look pretty!"

Homura blinked, definitely not used to a compliment out of nowhere, "Oh, thanks. And you… look really cute."

"Thank you~!" the younger girl said with a giggle. Somehow, she thought that Nagisa was a more child-like version of Madoka. Sure, she could keep up with Madoka for several hours, but with this little girl, she'd be exhausted in a span of two or three minutes. Nagisa dragged Homura around by her arm, seeing that the interior of the building was rather complex compared to the view from outside and it would be pretty easy to get lost. The saying 'don't judge a book by its cover' certainly applied to this apartment.

They finally arrived at the doorway to Mami's room. Nagisa hastily opened the door, revealing a room with many decorations. There was a small table in the center of the room, alongside a redhead splayed on the floor immodestly, what with one of her legs resting on the couch and the other one resting on the pillow she was hugging. She was sleeping soundly, a drool coming out from the side of her mouth that was curved up in a _very_ unsettling grin. Homura made a mental note to sleep in a safe distance from Kyoko later tonight. Using Sayaka as a barrier would be an option she'd consider picking. That said, other than the unpleasant view of a dozing Kyoko, the room was looking pretty classy, despite the bright colors all around. She also took note of the snacks on top of the small glass table, some paintings hung up on the wall, an HDTV that was currently showing a baseball match, several other rooms and Madoka having trouble dragging a heavy-looking mattress that was about one and a half size of her body.

Homura's eyebrows rose as she walked further inside, "That's… heavy, right?"

"Looks like it… Can you help her, Pumpkin-chan? Here, I'll take your bag to the guest's bedroom. The others' got their bags in there too," Nagisa offered.

"Wait a moment," Homura muttered, dangling the bag on her elbow to make sure that it wouldn't be too heavy for Nagisa to carry. It really was a good idea not to bring some books along, "Okay, here you go," she said as she handed the bag over, "Thanks, and sorry for troubling you."

A happy grin made its way up the little girl's lips, "No worries!" she said, tiptoeing when she got near Kyoko and walked off to a room.

Homura put her hair up in a messy bun, in case those insanely long black locks would get in the way. She quickly scurried over to Madoka, while carefully walking past Kyoko, not wanting to wake the red-haired disaster catalyst up. Then again, maybe Kyoko should be woken up, seeing that she had the muscles to help. Putting those thoughts aside, she tapped on Madoka's shoulder, earning a surprised yelp from the girl. Madoka turned around with a wide smile, now surprising Homura in return, "Hey."

"Mm, you look helpless," Homura murmured, grabbing the other side of the mattress, "Why don't you wake that lazy bum up?"

"Umm, Kyoko-chan's been helping Mami-san with stuff since morning. She arrived earliest, so she already helped to rearrange the guest's bedroom since it was a total mess. She had to carry a lot of heavy things and move the cupboards so it would be enough for three beds," Madoka explained as she guided the taller girl towards said bedroom. The two of them watched as Nagisa cheered them on while walking out of the bedroom, going to the kitchen and do her share of work.

'_Three beds?'_

Realization slapped Homura in the face after she mentally counted on the number of people that would be joining in this sleepover, "Don't tell me we're going to… uh… sleep in pairs?"

The pinkette still had that smile on her face, nodding, "Yeah, we're going to decide who's going to sleep with whom later. It's always the most thrilling part. Last month I got to sleep alone, ahaha. This month, no one's going to sleep alone, so I'm pretty excited!"

Homura sighed, "You're too kind for your own good, I swear…"

"But there's no such thing as 'too kind', Homura-chan," Madoka responded, much to Homura's surprise. And that caused her to look right at the shorter girl's eyes, dismissing the discomfort that was building up in her heart. The silly smile earlier was replaced with a warm one as Madoka continued her sentence, "That's a naïve theory, right?" she said, ending it with a giggle.

Nodding slowly, Homura carefully followed Madoka's instructions when setting up the bed. The other two beds were already set up neatly, as expected from Kaname Madoka. She shuffled over to the cupboard, opening it to take the bedsheets out. It was amazing to see that the bedsheets were still clean as new, compared to the slightly dusty cupboard. Rather than just standing there and watch Madoka work on the sheets, Homura decided to bring up something, "Do you guys do this every month?"

"Yup, once every month," Madoka answered.

"I'm wondering, though, why didn't all of you invite Shizuki Hitomi instead? I mean… I'm still partially a stranger, you know," Homura asked.

The moment Homura mentioned the word 'stranger', Madoka halted her movements, "For the first one, Mami-san never actually knew Hitomi-chan, neither does Nagisa-chan," she said as she looked back at the dark haired girl, her eyebrows furrowing slightly, "You may think of yourself as a stranger to us, but we think of you as a friend, Homura-chan."

"Oh…" was all Homura could muster, her eyes finally went away from the girl in front of her.

"Besides…" Madoka paused as she got back to her task, "I don't really like the word 'stranger'… it's really alienating people. I'd rather refer to this 'stranger' as a 'good person I haven't befriended yet'!"

"My God, you speak like my mother," Homura said in a low voice while pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Oh, is she nice?" Madoka asked in her usual cheery tune.

Homura raised an eyebrow, "You're… interested?"

"A lot!" Madoka said, spinning around on her heels, "It must be really lonely living alone, right? I always reminisce about the good times I've had with my friends when I'm all alone, so I can think… that they're always around me. Maybe… maybe you can do the same with your mother."

'_Remembering her isn't that much of a pleasant thing… this girl may listen, but will she understand?'_

Giving Madoka a deadpan look, Homura twirled her forelocks, "Very well. I don't mind sharing about her traits. But nothing further than that, got it?"

The shorter girl clapped her hands in anticipation, "Okay! Feel free to talk about anything, Homura-chan!"

Homura was about to jab at those words, before the words on the tip of her tongue were suddenly gone by a gentle whisper in the back of her head.

"_Many things start out smoothly, but the ones that don't, surely will last longer with you."_

Gritting her teeth, she swallowed hard to get her words right, "Anything, huh… I guess. But to be frank, I might go on forever if you ask me about my mother."

"So what? I can go on endless loops if you ask me about my Mama!" Madoka said with a laugh.

Homura looked at the other girl, a glint of interest in her violet eyes. Now that she thought about it again, Madoka also didn't say much about herself, so that should be good enough of a reason not to tell her about Homura's very own life, right? But if she kept this up… nothing would happen. Nothing would change. Then…

"Living room is the perfect place to have some talk, come on!" Madoka said, tugging on Homura's sleeve, "You look great, by the way, ehehe," she continued while looking away to hide her cheeks that went red from embarrassment.

Silence took over the dark haired girl as she watched Madoka's pink, frilly, yet simple dress sway about, "… I guess… thanks. You too…" she mumbled absentmindedly as the target of her compliment let out a wholehearted laugh.

'_Well, if we have a thing in common… then why not?'_

* * *

"And then Madoka's like 'Oh my God Sayaka-chan she sent me a text with a smiley!' I freaking nearly died from laughing, like, in front of Kyosuke. He almost thought I needed CPR but still, I don't mind a CPR from him! I don't even know who Madoka meant with 'she' but why do you even have to text me, Madoka? That's so ridiculously not important. That's what made me laugh for, like, half an hour!" Sayaka gleefully told the story to everyone in the living room, "I could've fainted anytime soon there, I mean, Kyosuke's there and he watched my ridiculous laugh! You know? The one where I clapped like a high and retarded seal? And Kyosuke's like-"

"Y'know, Sayaka," Kyoko muttered, her chin resting on the table while she rolled an apple back and forth with her hands, "You've been talking about that thing 'til I can remember what you're going to say next… how many was it? Oh yeah, twenty. Freaking. Times. Can you, like, shut the hell up?" She finished, rising her voice slightly, mimicking Sayaka's style of talking in a mocking way.

Mami, who currently had a sleeping Nagisa's head on her lap, sighed in an attempt to express her exhaustion over hearing the same thing over and over simultaneously and said, "To put it simply, Miki-san. You've been talking for…" She stopped for a moment to look over at the clock, "… Three hours about the same thing. I have to admit that I'm getting a little… disinterested."

"Eh? About the same thing? For real?" Sayaka asked in disbelief, her voice squeaky.

"See? Even your throat is dying from all the crap you forced it to let out," Kyoko pointed out, "You. Need. Apples!" she exclaimed as she tackled Sayaka to the floor with an apple on each hand, "I don't even give a damn on how you laughed, man! That's even more unimportant than Piglet's text!"

"Nnngg…" Nagisa groaned, turning around back and forth uncomfortably in her sleep. The blonde sipped her tea before humming a lullaby for the little girl, completely blocking out the sound of the now-wrestling girls across from her. Madoka and Homura were also off in their own world, with Madoka casually eating some of the snacks and shared a few talks with the quiet girl next to her. Whenever Sayaka and Kyoko rolled too close to them, Homura would smack them off with the pillow she was hugging. The fact that Sayaka told everyone else about her 'smiley text' got into her nerves, while all Madoka could do was blush and shrink in the cushion she was sitting on. She was fine however, if Sayaka only mentioned it once, but as Kyoko said, that thing was mentioned for twenty times. Granted, the blue haired girl didn't know who exactly it was that Madoka mentioned in her text, but still… being one of the main objects of Sayaka's gossip was pretty infuriating.

"Kyo-tan no! Not my hair!"

"Dammit, gimme back my bandana!"

"Look at what you did to me! Be responsible!"

"What the hell?! You started it!"

"You're spouting nonsense!"

"The only nonsense I hear here is _you_!"

"Gwah! Your hair is _everywhere_!"

"Your ass is _everywhere_!"

"That's it! You're so dead!"

"Game on, bitch!"

The exchange of cursing was heard as they rolled around on the floor. Most of them were Kyoko's, as they were fighting over another minor thing. Mami couldn't help but let out another sigh of exhaustion as her hands covered Nagisa's ears so that the sound of curses wouldn't echo in her innocent dreams, "They're abusing my patience…"

"Mami-san?" Madoka called out as the older girl looked over at her, "It's 8pm. I think we should decide the pairs soon."

"Ah, yes, that's right. Now, Sakura-san, Miki-san, will you please get back to your-" Mami skillfully avoided the pillow that was accidentally thrown at her, "-respective cushions?"

Somehow Homura could feel that the blonde senior was getting a bit pissed off to the point she could imagine a small vein popping out on her forehead. Not wanting to risk the peace any longer, Homura threw the pillow she had been holding at the two girls, successfully stopping them, as the pillow got stuck inbetween their faces, "Why don't the two of you continue this later?"

Sayaka pulled the pillow off her and Kyoko's faces, her hair completely messed up, "Humph, fine. I'm not done with you!"

Kyoko got up. Her hair was in an even worse condition than Sayaka's in a way that could make a male lion get a mental breakdown, "Neither do I!"

"Thank you, Akemi-san," Mami said. She cleared her throat and placed a plastic cup filled with six chopsticks at the center of the table, "Here goes… Nagisa-chan, wake up for a little bit. We're going to decide the pairs," With that, Nagisa got up to a sitting position, rubbing her sleepy eyes. Mami continued her words, "To welcome our new member, Akemi Homura, I'll give you the honor of shaking the cup. Now, if you will, Akemi-san?"

'… _I don't even understand what is going on and somehow it's giving me the vibes that this'll decide their destiny…'_

Homura reached out for the cup, feeling very uncomfortable at the unsettling silence. Everyone went even quieter as she began shaking the cup, the chopsticks inside it stumbling around wildly. The tense atmosphere gave her goosebumps, considering that _Mami_, of all people, took this thing seriously. Well… not like she could help it, because she already saw just how much of a disaster Kyoko could be when she was sleeping. Legs all over the place, drool all over her face.

The very moment she stopped shaking and was about to place the cup back at the center of the table, everyone suddenly reached out to get their chopsticks with expressions full of determination, Sayaka with her eyes and mouth wide open, Kyoko with her pupils dilated and nose scrunched up high to the point her nostrils were exposed for everyone to see, Mami with a confident smirk on her face, Nagisa with glassy eyes and a panicked look, while Madoka just casually plucked out her pick since Homura was sitting next to her. Homura never felt so threatened before. She jerked her head back, forced her eyes shut and crossed her fingers, praying that none of the girls would snap her arm off.

'_Nobody told me it would be this insane. Nobody did.'_

Her eyes opened slowly when she felt that the others had gotten their chopsticks. She checked her surroundings, only to see Sayaka and Kyoko looking at each other in disgust, Nagisa hugging Mami for dear life, a puzzled Madoka and one chopstick left in the cup. After going through that horror, now she had no choice but to take the last chopstick. When she took it out, the pinkette by her side giggled and placed her own chopstick on the table, letting Homura see what she got.

"Sorry, forgot to tell you that it'll be a little chaotic. And we got paired up, even, ahaha," Madoka said, a sheepish smile on her face.

Homura blinked, taking a good look at her chopstick and noticed that it got the label of same color with Madoka's. She placed her hand on her chest to calm down her heart that was beating in an abnormal pace thanks to what happened a few moments ago.

'_These people will be the death of me yet…'_

"Homura…" Sayaka said with a shaky voice, "It will be your fault if I wake up battered on the floor next morning…"

Hearing that, Homura could only roll her eyes, waving off the blue haired girl's remark. Sayaka quickly got up from her seating position and ran off to the bedroom without any further notice. Kyoko, who definitely knew what she was going to do, swiftly jumped up to a standing position and ran after her 'partner' to take over her own share of the bed.

"I'm guessing there'll be another round…" Mami said as she patted a very drowsy Nagisa's head, "You should go in there and tell them you're going to sleep. They'll stop. I'm going to catch up after turning off the lights."

"Okay, g'night Mami-nee," Nagisa said, pecking Mami's cheek. She turned around and nodded her head at the other two girls, mumbling, "Night, Pumpkin-chan, Melon-chan."

"Good night, Nagisa-chan!" Madoka responded.

"Ah, I'm turning in too," Homura said as she stood up and walked towards the bedroom.

Mami shared a look with Madoka and nodded at her. The younger girl tilted her head in confusion, not really getting what Mami meant. Sighing, the blonde motioned for Madoka to also go to sleep. Madoka snapped her fingers and giggled as she went off to the bathroom, about to brush her teeth. There was nothing else left to do but turn off the electricity, as the moonlight was bright enough to act as a lighting.

* * *

Shifting around uncomfortably in her sleep, a certain pinkette couldn't help but lift her eyelids open when the moonlight shone right at her face. She squinted, her eyes wandering aimlessly around the dark room she was sleeping in. Madoka almost thought that it was morning already, due to the moon being so bright. Her head snuggled deeper into the pillow, still trying to get a more comfortable position. It wasn't helping that Kyoko was sleeping really soundly, her snores echoing throughout the room. Not to mention Sayaka's constant sleep-talking, that would sometimes turn into random wails. Those two really couldn't stop themselves from competing against each other to determine who could be the loudest.

Supposedly, Madoka already got used to the noises caused by Kyoko and Sayaka since they'd been in this for several months, especially Sayaka who had been visiting her house for sleepovers ever since they were little. But she had to admit, this time, she was a little nervous, as she got a partner that didn't move much in her sleep.

Not yet.

The pinkette nearly fell over to the bedside by a sudden shift of weight behind her. She could hear the sound of a rapid breathing and inaudible whispers. A bit paranoid, Madoka turned around. What she saw was beyond unusual. For her, at least. Homura was up in a sitting position, drops of sweat rolling down her face. She was gasping for breath while those pale hands clenched tightly on her chest. She looked even paler than usual. One of her hands moved up her forehead, resting there in order to get rid of the nightmare's remains that still flashed in her mind. Apparently, she was whispering comforting words for herself.

In both reflex and immense worry, Madoka got up and placed her hand on the other girl's shoulder, "Homura-chan?"

Homura swept Madoka's hand away as her head turned to look at the smaller girl, horror evident on her face. Her gaze softened when she noticed that it was just Madoka, "… I had a nightmare, just that… Go back to sleep."

"But… it didn't look normal, Homura-chan," Madoka said quietly, "Normal nightmares won't shook people up that much. Are you really okay?"

"I'm fine!" Homura hissed in frustration. Her eyes glanced aside, giving her a view of a shocked pinkette. Taking a few deep breaths, she finally regained control over herself, "… Sorry."

Madoka shook her head slowly, "It's alright," she murmured as she subconsciously took Homura's hand in hers.

Not expecting the sudden interaction, Homura jerked her hand away, "W-What are you…?"

"Oh, Mama used to do that until I fall asleep whenever I get up in midnight because of nightmares… it's becoming my habit, sorry."

Homura let out a deep sigh as her head slowly fell back to the soft pillow. She brought her hand close to her face, it was still shaking. Madoka then lied back down, facing her with a worried look. Hoping a little, she shifted around until they were face-to-face with each other. This would probably make her look stupid, but… "Does it work? Holding hands, I mean…"

"Yeah," Madoka said, a shy smile formed on her lips as her cheeks got a little red.

"Then…" Homura trailed off while moving up her hand to rest it right in front of her face, "… I'd like a small help."

'_What a weird feeling.'_

Small fingers gently wrapped around Homura's cold hand, squeezing it lightly, "Now close your eyes."

'… _Please don't get me too attached to her.'_

Slowly closing her eyes, the dark haired girl steadied her breathing, with the view of Madoka's smiling face still clear in her mind.

'_Nonetheless… it's a pleasant view.'_

Dark pink eyes watched closely as the girl got back to her unknown dream world. She gave her hand another squeeze, firmer this time. Much to her surprise, Homura returned the squeeze, albeit less firm. She was a bit alerted when the other girl began frowning and shivering uncontrollably. Madoka held the pale hand with both of her hands now. Silently hoping that it would work… and that Homura would be alright. When she no longer felt the tension from Homura, all Madoka could do was smile a little wider.

Right a split second before she closed her eyes, she caught a glimpse of the raven-haired girl's lips twitching up in a barely noticeable smile. Unfortunately, before she could get a better look of that expression, her drowsiness prompted her to sleep, knowing full well that she wouldn't be able live this down tomorrow.

* * *

**A/N: **Oo das long. I didn't plan it to be this long but I just had that last part in my head. It's two eventful days stuffed up in one chapter anyway, but yah.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **School's being a biatch for me. Also I've lost my internet for days and got it up and running again last week. This was meant to be uploaded on Valentine's but meeehhh. I wonder if you can make it through to the end of this chapter though, since I always ended up continuing the whole thing half-asleep. I don't even know what does the title have anything to do with it, haha.

**Disclaimer:** I still don't own PMMM, by the way. If I do Kyubey's mouth can move on its own (ew).

* * *

**Chapter 4: The Other Side**

She saw them again, those unnerving and absurd images that always flashed before her dream comes to an end. At first, Homura thought those were just a part of her recurring nightmares, but no. Like a reminder of how much impact that the incident gave her. Like a sign that she wouldn't be able to forget anything despite her distaste towards everything that already happened in the past.

Usually, all those thoughts would just be emphasized by her violet eyes blankly staring at the ceiling of her own bedroom as the old, happy scenes randomly replay themselves like a broken record with the pure white ceiling acting as the screen. This time when she opened her eyes, she didn't see the familiar white ceiling nor her alarm clock, but someone else she had been familiar with, currently sleeping with such peace that made her a little jealous. Homura blinked to get a better view, now seeing her hand being held tight by two smaller hands.

'_I guess it _did_ work…'_

Funny, how the view of Madoka's sleeping face could be pretty distracting to the raven-haired girl. Distracting to the extent she didn't even notice the sound of someone taking pictures behind her. After a few more seconds of pointless staring, Homura finally got alerted by the endless camera-snapping sounds. She quickly turned around to see Nagisa holding a camera, ready to take another picture and a smiling Mami next to the little girl. Embarrassed, Homura couldn't help herself from mouthing, "What are you doing?!"

"Cleaning," Mami replied casually while holding up the broom in her possession, "And a little documentation."

"I want to cuddle Pumpkin-chan too…" Nagisa said as she went through the photos she had taken earlier in the morning.

'_Cuddle?'_ Homura made a confused look and said, "Wait, what? Holding hands isn't… cuddling."

"You were-" The rest of Nagisa's words were muffled by Mami's hand.

"Yes, yes, that's true. Holding hands isn't _cuddling_, Nagisa-chan," Mami said, that rather unnerving smile still plastered on her face, "Then, would you like to help me at the kitchen, Akemi-san? I'm done with the cleaning and all that's left is to prepare the breakfast."

"Okay," Homura muttered as she slowly slipped her hand away from Madoka's grasp so that the girl wouldn't wake up. It just occurred to her that Madoka was a heavy sleeper, quite similar to Kyoko minus the snoring. And mess. Talk about Kyoko, Homura was a little curious as to why her snores weren't heard anymore.

When she had her eyes on the bed the redhead shared with Sayaka, her jaw dropped slightly in wonder. Well… she wasn't expecting something like Kyoko and Sayaka finally had peace in their own slumber, but… Kyoko was practically chewing on Sayaka's short blue hair while hugging the shorter girl so tight that she looked more like she fainted from suffocation than sleeping. It didn't help that Sayaka was making weird, disturbed expressions while her hand clenched a fistful of red hair and pulled it roughly. Their legs were entangled, thankfully stopping each other's movements from getting any more disastrous than it already was. Their bed was in complete mess, with the pillows scattered on the floor, bedsheet nearly ripped here and there, and several parts of the blanket were literally torn apart thanks to Kyoko's non-stop chewing.

It was a real wonder why none of those two had woken up.

"Ah, that's pretty normal, don't worry. We've bought a lot of bedsheets and blankets in case this would happen. Might need to restock very soon, though," Mami explained.

Getting a little uncomfortable having her mouth being covered by Mami's hand, Nagisa pulled herself away as she gave a light nudge to the blonde, "Things were a little worse than this, but the fun stays the same!"

"It _is_ kind of fun…" Homura whispered under her breath. Every bit of her nerves was much more relaxed than they usually were. A stark contrast to the days when she woke up from those nightmares, from those sleeps, where she would feel very anxious and insecure. After a long time of not having such a good rest, it sure felt really good and nostalgic. She got up to her feet and took a last look at Madoka, pulling the blanket up so that it would properly cover the girl's body from the chilly morning air before proceeding to head for the kitchen with Mami and Nagisa. The raven-haired girl was walking ahead, completely clueless to the knowing looks Mami and Nagisa were exchanging with each other.

* * *

At first, when Mami said that waking up the others would be one heck of a difficult chore to do, Homura thought that it was because of Kyoko judging from how she didn't even wake up when she had a taiyaki shoved into her mouth. But to her dismay, _Sayaka_ proved to be a worse heavy sleeper than the redheaded glutton. While all Nagisa and Homura needed to do to wake Madoka up was to poke her face continuously and dangle a smoked beef in front of Kyoko's face to get her consciousness back in place, the blue haired girl certainly didn't react to any of the efforts they gave.

"Get up, moron! Can't have my breakfast if you don't drag your lazy ass around!" Kyoko yelled at Sayaka's ear, not even getting a twitch in return.

Madoka was repeatedly hitting Sayaka with a pillow, "This. Worked. Back. Then!" she said, her words punctuated by every hit.

"Umm… she was already half-awake back then…" Nagisa said, tickling Sayaka by running a feather back and forth her feet.

"I can't believe this," Homura asked to herself, watching from the doorway, "Try something else, why don't you?"

"We've tried everything, Homerun! Honest!" Kyoko answered while shaking Sayaka's body violently. Tired of seeing this much chaos in trying to wake one person up, Homura walked up to Kyoko and told her to say some magic words that might wake Sayaka up. A wicked grin suddenly manifested itself on her lips as she leaned down towards the blue haired girl's ear. She whispered in the most assuring way possible, "… Kyosuke's proposing to you."

"KYOSUKE! I DO! I FREAKING DO!" Sayaka yelled, jerking her head up hard enough to hit Kyoko's face as the redhead stumbled backwards from the impact. Jumping up from the bed with a really wide smile and watery eyes, Sayaka pushed her way out from the bedroom, all the while yelling "Oh my God" repeatedly.

'… _It's very effective.'_

"Errrgghhh," Kyoko grunted, clenching her hands over her throbbing-in-pain face, "… you manipulative little bitch."

"Why, you're very welcome," Homura said, thick sarcasm in her voice, "_Nobody_ told you to _whisper_ in her ears. Let's eat, Kaname-san, Nagisa," she continued as she turned around, flipping her hair.

Nagisa chuckled sheepishly, patting Kyoko's head, "There, there, Apple-chan. The ouchies will go once you eat!"

"Yeah, Kyoko-chan. You can have my share of Pocky, so cheer up!" Madoka said as she went out from the bedroom with Nagisa following behind her.

Once she made sure that everyone already left the bedroom, Kyoko stood up, letting one of her hands fall back to her side as the other one wiped a trickle of blood coming out from her nose. Frowning deeply in complete annoyance, she groaned, "… It's always about him, isn't it?"

* * *

After the breakfast, the girls were busy with their own routine. Mami and Madoka were washing the dishes, while Kyoko got kicked into the bathroom because she took the most time during bath. Sayaka and Nagisa decided to slack off in the living room while watching their favorite show. That said, Homura also slacked off with a cup of coffee in her hands, but she had her eyes on the window that faced towards the cityscape of Mitakihara. The place wasn't as tall as a skyscraper, but the view was nice enough to see most part of the city that wasn't obstructed by any tall building. Just enough to show her a small and peaceful portion of the city.

'_I wonder if she had ever seen the city this way before…'_

Her mind recalled all the things she once heard about Mitakihara, about how it wasn't that much of a nice city. About how difficult things were for her mother in this place… she barely had any chance to truly see and feel anything about it herself, despite being born there. No one gave her the chance to do such a thing. On another note, she didn't want to think that what she heard were lies. There she was in a building, breathing and alive. Her wish was fulfilled. The wish to finally see the restless city with her own eyes after all those times of restraining herself from judging everything by the words she heard.

But she began loathing it after that incident.

She began loathing that selfish, ignorant side of her and abandoned that childish wish to the point she became the person she is now.

"_Please don't leave, it's safer here."_

Homura's grip tightened on the cup as the thoughts began flooding her mind again. Now that she woke up with her mind crystal clear, it wasn't as good as she guessed it would be. The voices were significantly more vivid than usual. Huge luck it was her mother's just now. But what if the others started ringing on the back of her head too? She didn't want that. Not at this place. Fortunately, someone stopped her train of thoughts by a tap on her shoulder.

"You really like to zone out, don't you Homura-chan?"

Sighing at the sound of that familiar voice, Homura answered, "No, it's just that you're always around to interrupt my thoughts."

"Aw, sorry…" Madoka murmured, walking up to the taller girl's side.

"… Well it's not like those were positive thoughts, anyway," Homura justified, looking down at the floor before taking a sip of her coffee.

Madoka, looking even more concerned than she already was, suddenly pulled Homura by the hand away from the window. The girl didn't let go once they were a few meters away from where Homura was standing a moment ago. She then stared at the confused ravenette deep in her eyes and said, "H-Hey, uhh… there's still hope, you know… I mean…"

"What are you blabbering ab-" Homura stopped, finally catching Madoka's drift after looking back and forth between the window and those dark pink orbs, "Oh."

"Y-Yeah, so… don't."

"Kaname-san," with a mix between annoyed and amused tone in her voice, Homura continued, "I don't think of good things often, but I'm not suicidal either."

"You give the feels though, Homura," Sayaka said from the couch as she watched the two girls with Nagisa.

'_I am flattered. Very flattered.'_

The white-haired girl giggled, "Suicidal doesn't sound like a good word but I keep imagining the two of you talking like that with the background of evening sky! It's just… there! You know… ehehe."

"That's mean, Sayaka-chan," Madoka replied Sayaka's remark immediately with a pout.

"That's romantic, Nagisa!" Sayaka said as she completely ignored Madoka. Arguing with a pouting Madoka was one of the things she couldn't win and would never win. She threw her arm around Nagisa's shoulder, making the youngest girl turn her attention away from the two, "L-Let's just find some drama, okay!"

"Ooooh, I'll pick!" Nagisa cheered, taking the remote from the blue haired girl. It was a fortune that Nagisa owned a short attention span.

"She's ignoring me again! Oh well," Madoka said as she turned back to Homura. The moment she looked at those pale lips, all Madoka could think was that little smile she saw last night. A smile was creeping up her own lips while her eyes stayed still and her mind replayed that short scene again and again. It also made her wonder why Homura never smiled to begin with, hiding that lovely motion behind her frowns.

Homura, a bit confused and uncomfortable at how Madoka wasn't saying anything with that weird grinning-like expression, finally managed to blurt out, "Uhh… are you around?"

"Eh? Wah! S-Sorry, sorry! I-I just…" Madoka said, averting her gaze away as a faint blush appeared on her cheeks, "I just want to ask!"

Homura took another sip from her cup, "About?"

"How was… your dream?" Madoka asked, letting go of Homura's hand.

"My dream?" Homura repeated in disbelief, "Why are you interested about that little stuff?"

"I want to know. I-It's not a wrong thing when you're curious about your friend, is it?"

Now that she mentioned it, it occurred back to her that Madoka already considered Homura as a friend, no matter how the latter would feel. After all, she had to admit that Madoka really would make a good friend, despite her doubts towards the pinkette, "It wasn't bad."

"Really?" Madoka said in relief, "I'm… glad I could be of help. I'm really glad."

With that, Homura couldn't even look at Madoka's face even though said girl was looking away. It was awkward when she found out that she had been shifting her eyes here and there, not knowing where to look at. The sudden feeling of embarrassment caught her completely off-guard, "I'm going to… get some more sugar. It's a little too bitter now that I think of it," Homura said as she hastily walked past Madoka.

'_What in the world am I doing?'_

"Yeah… I think I need to pack things up too!" Madoka said with a pause.

"_Why is it when you do something, it ends up badly?"_

The raven-haired girl stopped herself from moving any further. When she saw Madoka walking slowly past her, she took a deep breath. Maybe she'd look like a fool yet again, but… "It was really nice."

This time, it was Madoka's turn to halt her steps. She turned on her heels to meet Homura's gaze and was a little surprised to see that usually pale face of hers was now tinted with shades of red. The sight struck her speechless, partly because of how new it was for her to see this side of Homura and partly because she knew that she only had to listen.

"Thank you, really," Homura continued, "I got to see my mother again… and she was smiling at me. Even though I couldn't talk to her but being able to see her smiling at me again… that alone was beyond perfect."

"A-Anytime!" Madoka answered enthusiastically, "I'll always be around if you need another help, Homura-chan!"

"Yeah, w-whatever you say," Homura murmured as she watched a widely-smiling Madoka walk off to the guest's bedroom. That funny feeling in her chest came back again, just like that time when she let Madoka call her by her given name. It could be either Madoka's happiness was very infectious or… it was her own feeling of delight. She looked back at the half-empty coffee cup, deciding that it really was a little too bitter. She stared at the reflection of her face on the liquid's surface and watched as it became even clearer. At that moment, she saw a familiar glint in the reflection of her eyes. The way it seemed so familiar made her a little curious as to where and when she had seen such a thing before. As she was about to get a better look at it, the reflection faded away by a ripple along with a door slamming open loudly a few feet away in front of her, hard enough for the walls and floor to shake.

"FORGOT MY TOWEL!" Kyoko yelled as she rushed out from the bathroom.

Butt-naked.

"SEXY RUUUUNNN!" she continued to yell, sprinting to get inside the guest's bedroom while frantically looking for said towel… or at least something to cover her body. All Homura could do was just stand and watch, mixed feelings in her heart. Then all hell broke loose when Madoka screamed bloody murder from inside the bedroom, with a horrified Kyoko running out from that place mumbling inaudible apologies, still naked. A dumbstruck Homura could only guess that her towel wasn't there either.

Mami called out from the kitchen, completely unfazed by Kyoko's antics, "It's already in the bathroom, Sakura-san! I put everyone's towels in there already, just in case!"

Hearing that, Homura could see Kyoko mouthing some curses as she sprinted again to get back into the bathroom. And stopped shamelessly midway in front of Homura while eyeing the coffee cup she had in one of her hands. She wasn't looking back, but Kyoko definitely was looking at her with those puppy eyes she'd use whenever she asked for something. A small nod from the owner, Kyoko took the cup and gulped down the whole coffee. The expression on her face spelled out gratitude as she returned the cup to Homura's cold hand, "It's good! But it kinda reminds me of you, y'know? All bitter and stuff!"

Before Homura could even answer with anything, Kyoko already slammed the door shut. She made her way to the kitchen, her head still processing the scene one by one only to regret doing that a moment later. Her back rested to the white wall as she pinched the bridge of her nose. Whereas she was supposed to be quite in terms with all the sudden weirdness around her, seeing a naked girl showing up in front of her without any signs of shame out of the blue was definitely not one of them. Mami walked towards her with a questioning look on her face while taking the empty cup from Homura to clean it up, "Are you okay, Akemi-san?"

"Not sure…" Homura trailed off, "… I mean, do you just randomly let people run around your house naked?"

"Uh-huh. I suppose I've already gotten used to that. Sakura-san has deaf ears towards my suggestion of modesty anyway," the blonde said with a chuckle, "Well, why don't you watch the TV with Nagisa-chan and Miki-san? That might help."

"I'll do just that," said Homura absentmindedly, trudging off to the couch where the two girls were sitting on. When she got there, Sayaka moved a little to the side so Homura could sit down. She whispered something to Nagisa, in which the dark haired girl didn't have any interest in knowing.

Nagisa blurted out a question, "Pumpkin-chan, what happened?"

"Yeah, you look _way_ paler than normal," the blue haired girl said, equally curious.

"I'm quite positive that my sanity has been degraded to the lowest level possible," Homura answered while painfully maintaining her deadpan expression. The sentence successfully silenced Sayaka and Nagisa. They exchanged a look before shrugging and going back to watch their favorite sitcom while Homura tried as hard as she could to burn off the mental images of what just happened.

* * *

Sayaka had excused herself to leave earlier in the afternoon, dragging Kyoko along with her to see Kyosuke. At first, Kyoko preferred to just stay and enjoy the hospitality of Mami's house but once the blue-haired girl mentioned something about ice cream treat and that she could stay outside of Kyosuke's room if she didn't want to see him, she chose to go with Sayaka. Madoka and Homura, however, had opted to stay and help Mami clean up the mess caused by Kyoko's endless snacking and an upset pinkette over seeing Kyoko's nude body. Everyone else noted to never mention anything about a naked Kyoko unless they want to see a shell-shocked Madoka.

Nagisa, flipping the pages of a dusty storybook she found under the couch, stopped her activities to do a quick read of the rather grim story about a girl trying to save a person very dear to her by returning back in time but failing miserably each effort. It took her interest so much to the point she finally sat down and rested her back against the couch to get the feel of the story. Considering that barely anything stops Nagisa halfway through her works, Mami tilted her head in a confused manner. She walked up to the excited little girl and tapped on her shoulder from behind the couch, "Well, what do we have here? Have we finally found something that can distract you from your workaholic tendencies?"

"_You're_ the workaholic one, Mami-nee," Nagisa said with a pout, "You never told me you have this kind of storybook! You always read me the same one every night."

"Hmm?" Mami hummed, picking up the storybook in question, "Oh… this? The main material is a little too heavy and it's mostly a tragedy. I just don't think it serves as something you'd tell someone before they go to sleep. Dear, you'll get sad dreams, even nightmares."

"But you don't have to hide it under the couch…" Nagisa replied as she swiftly snatched the book from Mami's hands, "It's such a nice story."

"I didn't hide it," Mami muttered, "I do think that it is a beautiful story. It brought me to tears the first time I finished reading it and when I was about to read it the second time, knowing all the tragedies that's going to unfold for that girl just hit a certain spot in my heart. So I put it somewhere I couldn't see it anymore. Almost forgot I even had it."

"Under the couch?"

"Well you won't look under the couch for no apparent reason, will you?"

Nagisa giggled before looking up to the ceiling, thinking about all the possibilities that could happen, "Oh, oh! What if Apple-chan or Berry-chan rolls around on the floor, they stopped in front of the couch and they saw this book?"

"… Assuming one is too lazy to pick it up and read it, while the other one is polite enough to not lay her hands on what's not hers _and_ that the two of them don't have any interest in tragedy… I'd say it's safe down there. Never thought you'd be the one to pick it up," Mami answered smoothly.

"Awwww… still, will you read it for me? It's okay if you don't want to, but I think this story will fit so well when you're the one who reads it out loud. This time we can cry together once it's done!" Nagisa tried to convince Mami with hopeful, round eyes, "Pleeeeeaaase?"

Feeling the side of her lips twitch up into a smile, Mami leaned down to plant a kiss on the top of Nagisa's head, "I'd love to read anything you like," and she got a squeal of happiness in response. To Mami, it was the most pleasant sound she ever heard. How she couldn't restrain herself from being honest with her feelings around the white-haired girl was one of the factors that got her so attracted to each other.

"Ladies, I hope I'm not interrupting, but can you please look this way for a minute?" A voice called out from the guest's bedroom.

Remembering that Homura was in charge of the bedroom and Madoka was in charge of the kitchen and disposing the garbage, Mami quickly jerked her head up, wanting to know what could possibly happen to the point Homura had to think that she was interrupting. She was about to ask what and why before the item dangling from the pale girl's hand silenced her. Nagisa added a dramatic gasp and let out a simple "Whooaaaaaa…" that sounded like a combination of confusion and shock.

"… I know," Homura said under her sigh, lazily looking at the bra she found on top of the cupboard, "Whose is this?"

"I'm sure it's not mine," Mami said quickly.

"No idea!" Nagisa answered, "It looks familiar, though."

"I…" Homura murmured, "I hope it isn't-"

"Homura-chan!"

"Wha-?" A flash of pink cut her response to the sudden call from the main doorway. She had a silent freak out after realizing whose bra that was. Great, just great. Now that girl was going to have shell-shock because of her.

Madoka had a furious blush on her face, holding tight her most private article of clothing close to her chest, "Wh-Why… how… no, no, what were you doing?"

"D-Do I look like I know?" Homura answered by throwing back another question, getting embarrassed herself.

"How did you end up having this?" Madoka asked yet again.

"How did that end up on the cupboard that you can't reach even when you tiptoed?"

Everyone fell silent for a moment, save for Nagisa's "Whoaaaaaa…" and the clock's ticking. Mami felt sorry for Homura for accidentally looking like a pervert trying to show off the treasure she had stolen. It must have been hard on Madoka's side too, after seeing her friend completely showing up stark naked in front of her eyes and now seeing her underwear exposed to other people… it didn't help that her apologetic face made her look like she would cry anytime soon.

"… The four of us," Madoka muttered quietly.

"What was that?" Nagisa squeaked.

"Let's keep it a secret… and never talk about it again," Madoka said clearly, "D-Deal?"

'_Who'd want to talk about it again, anyway?'_

"Deal, deal," Homura muttered, "You don't have to panic, really. It's not like I'm going to take it home or something," the last statement somehow made her cheeks felt like someone placed a lit torch on her face.

"It's a-okay Melon-chan! I kinda lost the feel to read this book, though… how about you read it for me tonight, Mami-nee?" Nagisa asked, bouncing up and down on the couch. She closed the storybook and held it close, trying hard to show Mami how much she liked it.

"Sure, but it might take some time to really finish the story. What if you fall asleep in the middle of it?" Mami asked back.

The youngest girl laughed, "You're talking like there're no other nights."

Her replies never failed to make Mami chuckle and smile. She had always found those smart replies lovely, coming out from the dearest person she could ever wish for. What she really wanted to do right now was to give Nagisa a bear hug and to straightforwardly say just how thankful she was to have the little girl around. And when she had her focus back to the other pair, who weren't even looking at each other, she knew that an important thing was going to happen to the two. Whatever would happen to them, Mami silently wished for the best, even though she hadn't even known Homura that much.

Right at that moment, an impish thought also appeared on her mind. She remembered about something she had taken earlier and made a quick, yet brilliant plan that might go without any interference. Whispering her thoughts to Nagisa, she could feel the little girl grin in anticipation. That motion alone was enough to tell her that Nagisa had agreed to put the plan into motion right after Madoka and Homura left. Those two were the main targets of the plan, anyway.

"Operation White Cheese begins," Nagisa whispered lowly like a villain would, followed by a creepy chuckle.

"White… Cheese?" Mami asked, sweat-dropping.

Gasping, Nagisa raised her hands up in defense, "That wasn't me!"

Meanwhile, a shiver suddenly ran up and down Homura's spine as she carefully checked if anything was behind her back. One of her hands patted the back of her neck to literally rub off the uncomfortable feeling. Sighing from those small lips of hers, she chose to just ignore it. As she turned around to put the bedsheets and blankets-except for the ones that got torn thanks to Kyoko-her heart dropped to her stomach and she nearly jumped when she found Madoka standing nervously right in front of her. Was she the cause of that shiver?

"You'd give me a heart attack anytime soon," Homura remarked, moving off to the side so she could make her way for the cupboard.

Madoka gulped, "Sorry… but can I ask you one thing?"

While neatly placing the sheets one by one, Homura peered over her shoulder to see the pinkette fidgeting. It seemed like she didn't have as much freak out as Homura thought she did. It gave her some sort of bizarre relief because Madoka wouldn't see her as a stupid underwear thief, at least, "Go on."

"Can we go home together?"

'_Really?'_

"Sure," Homura replied shortly. Kind of weird how Madoka asked for permission first while last time she just randomly dragged her along. Well, the fact that Kyoko wasn't around to help with Madoka's intention might be one of the reasons. Besides, she recalled that Madoka's house was only a few blocks away from hers, so there shouldn't be a valid reason to say no.

"Okay… when are you going home?" Madoka asked.

"Whenever I want. No one's gonna look for me," Homura stated, "Your choice."

Madoka's head drooped for a moment, as if to show that she had said something wrong, "How about after we're done cleaning?"

The dark-haired girl stepped back to take a good look on her finished work as she slowly closed the cupboard's door. She swept off any dusts that got stuck on her clothes' fabric, turning her head to properly look at Madoka, "Sounds good."

"It's decided, then!" Madoka pumped her fists in the air. Homura tilted her head, wondering what might make her sound so excited. After all, the ravenette wasn't so much of a good company to anyone. She could only keep things bottled up at her best, worried that if she ever let it loose for once, everything would spill for nothing. That would be a waste, wouldn't it? She watched as Madoka walk up to her to give her hand a gentle squeeze, reminiscent of the one she gave her last night. Homura wanted to step back, but stopped when she heard her pink-haired companion whisper, "Thank you."

"Huh? Why are you thanking me?" Homura asked, a bit flustered at the sudden interaction.

"Nothing in particular!" Madoka said, back to her enthusiastic self. It was always a wonder how Madoka could easily shift her feelings like that.

'_Unless…'_

Lost in her own reverie, Homura didn't have the chance to say a thing before Madoka turned around and ran off to the kitchen to finish up her work. If she could just be as straightforward as she was when her mood was really foul, she'd tell off Madoka for running off in all of a sudden like that. For now, she only wanted to enjoy the peace that the nice sleep last night had provided her.

* * *

Later in the noon, at one of the famous CD stores Sayaka loved to visit, she and a certain noisy redhead had infiltrated the store. Sayaka rummaged through one block and Kyoko checked on the other. Presumably, the storekeeper had gotten used to Sayaka running around from one block to another only to end up buying one or two things. But Kyoko, however, was the kind of person that picked whatever she found that had 'classical music' written on the description and made a huge pile of CDs to carry it over to Sayaka and definitely would leave it as it is on the floor once they were done. It was quite a hard work to keep an eye on each of them, so he just left them be until they shuffled over to the cashier.

"Is this all you can find…?" Sayaka asked Kyoko, looking up and down the towering pile of CDs.

"My apologies princess, but I have no interest in classical crap," Kyoko hissed, "You haven't even checked if there are any rare things here!"

Sayaka flicked Kyoko's forehead as she took a CD that got her interest, "Only one, Kyo-tan. But that's a good start!"

Since she couldn't return the blue-themed girl's assault, Kyoko rolled her eyes in annoyance, "I don't care, idiot. You told me it won't be so hard!"

"Ice cream?" Kyoko squinted, "Two ice creams?" Sayaka started to get her attention, "Two mint ice creams with chocolate sprinkles?"

That was sufficient to make the redhead sprint off to her assigned block eagerly. During normal occasions, it was so easy to ask Kyoko to lend her a hand but considering her reaction towards anything connected to Kyosuke, Sayaka had to put extra effort on bribing Kyoko. And she also had to handle with more protesting from the redhead when it came down to the gray-haired boy. Even so, Sayaka had always thought Kyoko's child-like attitude when someone offered her some food as really adorable. Sayaka always had a hard time to resist cute stuff anyway so it was such an eye candy to see Kyoko like that.

* * *

After saying their goodbyes, Madoka and Homura finally left Mami's house. The pinkette swore she caught a glimpse of their grinning faces just as she turned to face away from the apartment building. She found herself unable to hold back a smile as she walked side by side with Homura. Most of the time, when the sleepover was done, she always had to go home alone. Of course, she didn't want to bother Sayaka or Kyoko because they head for the opposite directions since Mami's apartment was located far beyond their usual separating point every time they walk back home from school. That was also why she always got home later than everyone else.

Well, walking home with Homura sure didn't have that much difference with the times she was alone. Homura was quiet as heck and Madoka didn't know where to start a conversation, since anything they'd talk about always ended up being short or random or even just some senseless babbling. Like that time when she tried to bring up a topic about Kazuko's complicated love life, all Homura did was to stare at her with an unreadable expression on her face. Most likely, it was boredom, confusion, annoyance or all of them combined, knowing the kind of person she is.

Hanging around Madoka for some time sure had made Homura sensitive to the atmosphere surrounding her. It didn't take her long to notice the feeling that Madoka was desperately trying to find something to talk about. She liked silence, but not when someone else is around. Comment about the weather? No, too mainstream. Tell her about how nice she looked like with that white dress? Madoka'd probably only reply with a 'thank you' and that's that. Her brain just had to stop working when she needed something to talk about.

"Umm… Homura-chan, you know…" Madoka said nervously.

"I know what?" Homura asked, mentally thanking God for aiding her in this matter.

"Kamijou-kun and Sayaka-chan," Madoka continued, "What do you think about them?"

Homura blinked repeatedly, "Don't tell me you ask this to every random person you walk with."

"But you're not a random person! Come on, I want to know your opinion!"

Homura sighed in defeat, "Yeah, okay, okay. Don't get offended in your friend's stead, but I'm not very fond of the idea of them getting together. I don't even know how he's actually like but I already know that they won't really get along."

The pinkette showed a sign of disappointment before throwing another question, "How so?"

"Do you honestly think that she's in love with him? What if it's just plain obsession?" Homura said clearly, her steps not even wavering one bit, "Does she truly want him to be happy? Or does she only want to make him hers?"

"I don't… know," Madoka murmured, almost inaudible.

"From her reaction when we woke her up by telling her that the guy proposed to her, she showed signs of obsession more than anything. And maybe forcing it a little, if you think about it. She's trying too hard, someday it might get back at her and… uhh well, I'm in no place to say anything further," Homura finished.

"… Wow, Sayaka-chan must be quite troubled with her own feelings, then," Madoka said as she looked up at the sky, "Maybe we need more heart-to-heart talks…"

As Homura looked forwards, letting Madoka go on with her endless comments about what she should do about Sayaka, there was a slight feeling of shock when she noticed that it was only two more blocks to her house. She really needed to be careful around Madoka, knowing how far the pinkette could drive her attention away so easily and perfectly. That wasn't only Madoka's doing, though. Homura was always one to use her brain more than her mouth, but that required her to focus on one thing only, meaning that if anything were to take her attention, she'd put her mind on that thing instead.

"_You really need to breathe Homura-chan, ehehe!"_

Homura pressed a thumb to her forehead wondering why, of all things, she remembered about her mother's ridiculous laughter. What the woman mentioned as 'you really need to breathe' was still a mystery to Homura. She had dismissed it as a joke this whole time, but now… maybe it had a more thorough meaning to it. Her mother was an easygoing person after all, so it was a bit hard to guess whether she was joking or not. Whatever hidden message that she tried to tell Homura, it probably didn't reach the girl.

"Oh, is that your house?" Madoka tapped on the ravenette's shoulder while her other hand pointed at a building's nameplate.

"Huh? Did you forg-" Homura bit her tongue from saying another word. She slowly peered behind her to find a puzzled Madoka.

"What was that?"

'_Bad, bad daydream…'_

"… Nevermind. Yeah, that's my house."

Madoka stared at the building in front of her eyes in amazement. When her gaze fell on the nameplate again, though, a light feeling of sadness swept over her heart. The exact same feeling like what she felt when Nagisa told her that the nameplate of Mami's place used to only have the name of the senior herself, that Nagisa's name wasn't there way back then. This time, she felt utter loneliness radiating from such a simple sight. Thinking that the huge house now belonged just to one person, Akemi Homura, made Madoka feel worse than she already was.

As Homura approached the doorway, she turned around to fully face Madoka and was surprised to see that the shorter girl stayed still, eyes sadly looking at the ravenette's house. She sighed, "Thank you for accompanying me all the way here."

"A-Ah!" Madoka yelped, stepping back from reflex, "N-No problem, Homura-chan, ahahaha!" she said with a nervous look as she ran up towards Homura, stopping a feet away from her.

"This house is creepy," Homura said, "I'm sure you don't want to hang around it for too long. Go home soon."

"Umm… I think it's gorgeous… just isn't very welcoming," Madoka said shyly.

"Exactly," Homura jabbed. Her eyebrows furrowed when Madoka approached her. She almost wanted to just open the door and run inside as the other girl came into a halt barely an inch in front of her. Madoka spread her arms wide, seemingly about to hug Homura. This didn't go unnoticed by the dark-haired girl, as she lightly pushed Madoka away while asking, "What are you trying to do?"

"… Goodbye hug…?" Madoka answered, uncertainty filling her voice, "You're fine with Nagisa-chan hugging you, right?"

With a roll of her eyes, Homura said, "Because she's still a kid. I kind of… I like kids, you see." She was aware of how lame that excuse was, while in truth she never had a chance to pull away from Nagisa because that girl randomly jumps at her out of nowhere. But to think that Madoka paid that much attention to the extent she knew that Homura was fine with Nagisa hugging her actually flattered her a little. Madoka twiddled her fingers, a sad smile curving up her lips. No matter how hard Homura tried to push the naïve girl away, she had to admit that the look on Madoka's face right now was _irresistible_. So instead of letting herself getting hugged, Homura took a third option, "Ugh… apparently I'm fine with high-fives."

"High-five, it is!" Madoka said as her face brightened up in the happiest way possible.

'_I hope I'm not going to regret this.'_

The taller girl raised one of her hands as Madoka did the same. When their hands met each other, Homura could feel the softness of the smaller girl's palm, unlike last night where she didn't have the chance to actually feel the touch. Exactly what she'd expect out of a gentle and caring girl like Madoka. Her thoughts were interrupted when Madoka let out a giggle, "See you tomorrow then!"

"… You're a tad confusing but yeah, see you tomorrow," Homura responded.

Madoka turned around and walked a few steps before whispering to herself, "It's all like usual from here…"

"Uh hey Kaname-san?" Homura called out, much to Madoka's surprise, "Maybe I'll return the favor sometime. You know, walking you home and stuff. You've helped me, I don't want to be indebted with anyone for long… and it's always good to know that someone cares," her voice came into a whisper as she ended the sentence.

Those words alone were enough to turn Madoka around to give Homura a wide, happy smile. Another good feeling seeped into her heart at that time. The pinkette waved and said, "Ehehe, I know you're a good person!" before running off to the distance.

"Yay," Homura said in an uninterested fashion. She pinched her own cheeks, trying to prove that whatever she said wasn't any form of daydream so that she wouldn't have to say anything cheesy for the second time. Sugarcoating words wasn't her kind of thing, anyway. However, she still wondered how those words came out so easily from her. Normally if she wanted to say something without any hesitation, she had to either be brutally honest… or say whatever that popped up in her heart.

"_You barely talk because no one listens to you? Wow I'm such a bad mother! Tell me everything then, Homura-chan."_

* * *

"Uh-huh I see, thank you."

Kyoko impatiently tapped her foot on the pure white floor of the hospital Sayaka had dragged her into. She was feeling like crap after two hours of searching for classical music CDs on her partner's demands only to find two rare ones. Her muscles felt rather sore after carrying around piles and piles of those things so she chose to wait for Sayaka as the girl went to the reception desk to see if she could visit Kyosuke. The more Sayaka frowned, the more Kyoko felt uneasy. That was enough to tell her that whatever Sayaka was hearing, it wasn't pretty.

Sayaka plopped herself on the seat next to Kyoko, looking emotionally beat up. Other times when Sayaka walk up to her with that expression, Kyoko would make fun of her but this time she had to restrain herself a bit. She knew just how bad her friend could blow up if she made a joke whereas it was too soon to make one. Surely she didn't want her to blow up into a swearing mess in a place where people were supposed to have rest. A hand tapped on her thigh as Kyoko plucked a stick of Pocky into her mouth, making her turn her head to face said hand's owner. Sayaka was looking at her with a lopsided smile, "Okaaayy… his examination schedule was moved up, so he's undergoing Physical Therapy today. I can't see him."

"Psh, I knew it. Let's just go home!" Kyoko huffed as she stood up hand-in-hand with Sayaka.

The way Sayaka got all quiet after they got out from the hospital was really awkward for Kyoko. It even felt like she was dragging a dead body with legs that were still capable of moving. The redhead normally could cope with Sayaka's excessive dramatizing of situations, but if it was all regarding the problem where she couldn't meet Kyosuke, that was a different story. Sayaka's voice was enough to slap some reality to Kyoko's mind, "I'm sorry for dragging you all the way there for nothing, Kyo-tan. You're mad at me too, aren't you?"

"Too?" Kyoko repeated, "I'm not mad at you, you fool. You're acting like I haven't been this way before! The hell is wrong with you?"

"It's not like I'm so desperate to see him just because I like him, Kyo-tan. I really _have_ to see him," Sayaka said.

Kyoko gasped, "What, do you guys secretly smoke weed in his room?!"

"… I'm not even going to answer that," Sayaka snorted at the question, "He… he sorta snapped at me yesterday…"

"I told you he's whiny," Kyoko shrugged, "Go on, go on."

"When did I get to your nice side?" Sayaka asked with a proud grin on her lips. Kyoko's squinting eyes immediately took the grin off while she continued, "Well, I handed him the CD of his favorite artist. What I told you guys yesterday was what happened when he was still listening to the music. It all went well, before he suddenly scowled and said something along the lines of me torturing him, saying that he doesn't want to listen to the music he couldn't play anymore… even the doctors already told him to give up."

Starting to get an idea of what was going on, Kyoko muttered, "And he lashed it out on you?"

"I just think he was having a bad time, is all," Sayaka groaned.

"Then problem solved, right? You shouldn't feel bad for yourself. I know how much you like him, but for the time being maybe you should leave him alone. There's no guarantee that he won't snap again, yeah? Lay low until you find the best time to sort it out with him," Kyoko said as she took out a piece of bubblegum and stuffed it into Sayaka's mouth, "Chew on something to keep your temper in check!"

Sayaka chuckled at the remark, slowly doing as she was told, "Shut up, I'm not you."

"Blablablabwabwabwa can't hear youuuuu!" Kyoko shouted as she took note that they were almost at the front of the blue-haired girl's house, "Oooo here's the Miki residence. Now go inside, get that stupid look off your face and say hi to your parents from me!" she continued while pushing Sayaka towards the doorway.

"Stop shoving me around, Kyo-tan!" was heard along with a hand flicking Kyoko's forehead.

"Nuh-uh!" Kyoko shook her head, "Stopping to shove you around means you have to stop flicking my forehead too!"

"… Th-That's disproportionate!" Sayaka protested.

Kyoko pinched Sayaka's nose in order to stop her from yelling too, since it might disturb her neighbors. It wasn't Sayaka who started all the shouting anyway, so Kyoko had her share of blame too. Right when she saw Sayaka shivering a bit, she began thinking that her stupid little friend was shouting to hide the fact that she couldn't stand the crisp cold evening air, since talking normally would cause her voice to waver. Grunting in the most inelegant way she could, Kyoko murmured, "Get inside already, stupid."

"Fine! I was about to," Sayaka turned around with a huff, rubbing her red nose. She stomped angrily into the house, slamming the door right in front of Kyoko's face hard enough to make Kyoko recoil from where she stood.

Shaking her head in annoyance, Kyoko started to make her way for her abandoned apartment. It might be not as comfort as Mami's home was, but it was her home and she was happy enough having one of her own. Once she got a few meters away from the front gate, she started to count, "3… 2… 1…" and then she scrunched up her nose while turning her head to look at the house's second floor, the balcony of Sayaka's room, to be precise. As she expected, the blue haired entity known as Sayaka showed up with her hands up in the air to wave at the redhead.

The girl stuck out her tongue, "See you tomorrow Kyo-tan!"

"Get back in there, Bluey!" Kyoko balled up her fist and raised it up at Sayaka. The latter made an unintelligible angry noise as she ran back inside her room, leaving a grin on Kyoko's face. Winning from Sayaka in an argument, albeit not so hard and she had done it more than she could count, never ceased to amuse Kyoko. Once something sparked an argument between them regarding 'the violin boy' aka Kyosuke, she knew Sayaka wouldn't back out easily and it was a hell lot of fun. There was also this one time she made a joke about Kyosuke where the only thing he'd touch was his violin and his violin alone to piss Sayaka off, since apparently that guy had more interest in the so-called violin than girls. Madoka noted that it was one of the biggest fights she'd ever seen second only to her mother bitching out one of her coworkers under the influence of alcohol.

Sometimes she wondered if Sayaka talked about her as much as she talked about Kyosuke around her. She wished so, at least. Then a cold, unwelcoming wind blew against her body. She shivered slightly, hugging herself in search of warmth, "Brr… it wasn't this cold before…"

* * *

**A/N: **So that's the end of the sleepover arc. 8k+ words to cover up one freaking day. I hope I'm not going to disappoint you guys 'cause I'm having a nasty writer's block here. Nvm I'll try to update faster so see y'all on chapter 5.

FYI even though I've finished reading it for a long time, I still love how Hanokage made Homura less stoic in the manga. It was heartbreaking to see. And I got a lot of feels after reading The Different Story and to a lesser extent, Kazumi Magica. Lolbye.


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